This just in: Netflix (NFLX 1.74%) has landed the streaming rights to yet another intensely watched TV show. Gilmore Girls is coming, and soon.
It started with a breathless tweet from Netflix itself:
Netflix has been #Gilmored! Every episode of #GilmoreGirls coming exclusively to #Netflix Oct. 1st. #WereGonnaNeedMoreCoffee
— Netflix US (@netflix) September 10, 2014
Then, E! Online followed up with some more detail, certified by Netflix sending out more Tweets to promote the E! article and to show some fan reactions to the announcement.
Hey, it's a social media world and Netflix uses Twitter (TWTR) as a promotional tool better than almost anybody. It's a great way to share some breaking news to the Netflix account's nearly 1 million followers.
I'm still waiting for a proper press release, but we do have some detail beyond the Oct. 1 streaming release date. Namely, Netflix will stream all seven seasons and 143 episodes of Gilmore Girls, in the company's traditional "all you can eat" binge-watching fashion.
That's about it. I have a couple of unanswered questions here:
- If Netflix is serious about its recent push for global content licenses, I expect Lorelai and Rory Gilmore to roll into Canada, Latin America, and big chunks of Western Europe as well. If not, I'm at least a little bit wrong about Netflix's content strategy. What's going on here?
- Is Netflix open to restarting Gilmore Girls? Remember, Arrested Development took its original seasons to Netflix streaming a couple of years before the company revived the prematurely canceled series. Now Netflix wants a fifth season, and there's talk of an Arrested Development movie, too. That's the sound of cash registers ringing, folks! If Gilmore Girls strikes a chord with Netflix audiences, why wouldn't the company be interested in a reboot?
I'll keep an eagle eye out for further detail on the future of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. Bringing back long-dead shows is becoming something of a specialty for Netflix, which helps set the company apart from other analog and digital video-watching services.
What's certain for now is that a show that never got the wide distribution and award-show attention it deserved is coming back for a second look. And with more than 50 million streaming subscribers worldwide, 37.6 million in the U.S. alone, Gilmore Girls' release next month will certainly pass in front of many eyeballs -- both old and new.