Saturday Night Live’s video archives going exclusively Yahoo! for a year?

Starting Sept. 1, 2013, your search for any of your favorite sketches and digital shorts from Saturday Night Live will lead you to Yahoo!

Seriously.

Yahoo!’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, announced the deal Wednesday night, writing: “As a lifelong Saturday Night Live fan, it is nearly impossible for me to pick my favorite skit. And, as a fan, I couldn’t be more excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Broadway Video to feature Saturday Night Live content exclusively on Yahoo! The partnership gives Yahoo! users exclusive access to the entire 38-year archive of SNL content as well as clips from the current season. Blues Brothers, the Coneheads, Church Chat, Wayne’s World, Coffee Talk, Pat, the Hanukkah Song – the list of tremendous clips goes on and on. Saturday Night Live has pervaded and defined our culture for decades.”

What does that include?

  • A library of show clips from the 1975/76 – 2012/13 seasons
  • Select “SNL” musical performances
  • Making-of and behind-the-scenes clips
  • A selection of dress rehearsal clips
  • Yahoo! will also feature current season episodes non-exclusively and has distribution rights for library show clips outside of the U.S. non-exclusively.

And by exclusive, that means that as of Sept. 1, 2013, all of the old SNL clips will disappear for a year from Hulu and NBC.com. Wait. Really? Not even NBC.com?

Broadway Video will help Yahoo! build a new online hub for SNL’s archives for that year (after which, it’s subject to renewal negotiations or a new deal somewhere else).

“Yahoo! will give ‘Saturday Night Live’ a great opportunity to expand its current digital distribution,” said Jack Sullivan, CEO, Broadway Video. “This deal will ensure that ‘SNL’ clips from past and future seasons will be even more accessible to fans across all generations.”

Yahoo! has worked with Broadway Video before, serving as the first hosting platform for SNL writer Mike O’Brien’s series, “Seven Minutes in Heaven.”

If it’s still a little unclear what SNL clips or seasons you’ll still be able to find on Netflix, Hulu, NBC.com or elsewhere, that’s because Yahoo! intends to reveal more details next week during its Digital NewFront Upfront presentation. So. Stay tuned.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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