Netflix has acquired subscription video on demand rights for The Blacklist from Sony Pictures TV, both parties confirmed Thursday. The digital service will pay in the range of $1.5 million to $2 million per episode, according to sources. Both companies declined to comment on terms of the deal.
Season one will be available to Netflix subscribers beginning Sept. 7. Speculation began circulating in March that Sony was looking to do an off-network sale of the series after only one season.
The Blacklist was the highest-rated freshman show on broadcast last season, averaging a 2.9 live-plus-same day Nielsen rating for NBC, and jumping to 4.9 in live-plus-seven. Beginning in September, the show’s second season will air on Monday nights following The Voice, the same timeslot it enjoyed last season. Following a midseason break, it will return in February with a post-Super Bowl episode, then shift to Thursday nights, where it will air ahead of new drama Allegiance.
“We strategically wanted to use the Super Bowl and the move of [The Blacklist] to Thursday night in order to change the game for us on Thursday, and also open up another time period on Monday,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told reporters at the TCA summer press tour in July.
News of the Sony-Netflix deal was first reported by Deadline.
