IMDb TV Gets Exclusive Free Streaming Rights To Older Shows Including “Malcolm In The Middle”
Disney has announced a new streaming deal with Amazon’s IMDb TV, to license full seasons of 21 older TV shows including “Lost”, “Malcolm in the Middle”, “Desperate Housewives” and many more.
IMDb TV will be adding more shows soon, including “Revenge,” “Private Practice” and “Lie to Me” on March 1st, followed by “Ally McBeal” on April 1st. With all the seasons of “Lost” arriving on May 1st and “Malcolm in the Middle” will be coming to IMDb TV on June 1st, both of which will be exclusive for free streaming on IMDb TV.
All 21 shows will be available to watch for free with commercials. Though it doesn’t look like this is an exclusive deal, since Hulu will also be keeping the shows.
Last year, when Disney announced Disney+, one of the key shows coming to Disney+ was “Malcolm in the Middle”, so it’s still possible that this show and others could be added to Disney+. But it does seem odd that a show previously announced for Disney+ is going to be available on IMDb TV.
Here is the full list of shows included in the deal:
- Boston Legal
- Desperate Housewives
- The Glades
- Graceland
- L.A. Law
- Legends
- Lie to Me
- Lost
- Malcolm in the Middle
- My So-Called Life
- Private Practice
- Revenge
- Roswell
- St. Elsewhere
- Terra Nova
- Ugly Betty
- The Unit
- White Collar
- Witches of East End
IMDb TV is a free, ad-supported streaming video channel available in the United States on the IMDb app, the IMDb website via laptop or personal computer, the Amazon Prime Video app and Amazon Fire TV devices.
While it might seem strange for Disney to offer older series of its shows for free via IMDb TV, Amazon will be paying Disney for access to these shows and it doesn’t look like the deal stops Disney offering the shows on its own platforms like Disney+ or Hulu. And helps Disney keep some licensing money coming in for older shows.
Will you watch any of these shows on IMDb TV?
This is ridiculous - Malcolm was supposed to be launch on Disney Plus and now it's not even there, but it's going to IMDB TV?! Possibly before it even hits Disney Plus?! And I didn't realize Disney owned all those shows. Some of them should be on Disney Plus to bolster its miniscule television library. As of now it's National Geographic or Disney Channel. Completely wasting their ABC / Freeform / ABC Fam / Fox Fam / Fox library. Just odd all around. Would NOT have expected them to be licensing their stuff out in America right after launching Disney Plus.
Agree... though the ABC shows are better suited for Hulu... Malcolm should be added before IMDb gets it, it was announced last year
The ONLY ABC Shows that are on Disney+ are the Marvel shows (Agents of Shield, Inhumans, Agent Carter), Boy Meets World, and The Muppets (2015 series). Although so far Agents of Shield is on Disney+ in international markets, not the US (unless if it got removed from the international Disney+ service). I think their could be other ABC shows that would work for Disney+ besides the aforementioned ones I brought up such as Once Upon a Time (and Once Upon a Time: In Wonderland), Golden Girls and Home Improvement.
Yeah it would feel strange that aside from the Disney+ series developed under 20th Century Television (Big Star in Appleton, Turner and Hooch", Love, Simon"), It would feel unusual to have The Simpsons as the Only 20th Century Television show on Disney+, but not Malcolm in the Middle or Glee. :/
I agree. This is ridiculous! This might be a silly question but can’t Disney at least make some kind of deal to have Malcolm in the Middle stream on Disney+ instead of IMDB TV since Disney promised us that it will stream within the first year?
I think their could be other ABC and 20th Century Television shows that would work for Disney+ besides just ONLY the Marvel ABC series (Agents of Shield, Inhumans, Agent Carter), Boy Meets World, The Muppets (2015 series) and The Simpsons (from 20th Century), such as Once Upon a Time (and it's Spinoff Once Upon a Time In Wonderland), Golden Girls, Home Improvement, Modern Family, Glee, Fresh Off the Boat, Malcolm in the Middle, among others. I really love to see some variety in the linup so please continue giving feedback to Disney+ customer service or by email.