After Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May finished their runs on Top Gear, a lot of eyes were watching to see what the three men would do next. They ended up signing on with Amazon for a new car show, a series that has been seen as a rival to the BBC’s Top Gear despite the fact the BBC drama is filming the new season and Amazon’s show doesn’t even have a name yet. Now, there’s even more of a reason to mention a rivalry between the two productions. The shows will now be directly competing in the streaming space, as well. That’s right, Netflix recently noted that episodes of Top Gear will air on the streaming service internationally.
This week, we learned that Netflix has closed a deal with the BBC to stream all episodes of the new Top Gear. CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed the news to The Guardian on Tuesday, noting that the BBC series will air on Netflix internationally, as it falls under the umbrella of an existing deal with Netflix. The worldwide streaming service is also still in talks to get episodes of Top Gear into many of the countries internationally that don’t fall under the deal. From how it looks now, both shows will end up competing on opposite streaming platforms.
If you do live in the UK, episodes of Top Gear will still be available via the BBC, but if you live in the States, episodes of the UK version of Top Gear have been available on Netflix in the past and look to be heading to the streaming service in the future. The real question is whether or not fans will be able to get the episodes quickly or if it will take some time. For instance, while recent seasons of Top Gear are available on Netflix, BBC America is actually the initial home for upcoming episodes of the show. Promotional materials, including trailers, have come through BBC America in recent weeks.
Still, the Netflix news is incredibly interesting, considering Netflix was initially the place where Jeremey Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were expected to go. However, after they chose Amazon as their new home, Netflix made some blunt comments regarding how the company looked at the data and at how much a Jeremy Clarkson car show would cost and realized the series would not be a good fit for the streaming service. If you’d like to know more about why they passed, head here.
There’s obviously something to be said about being the first team out of the gate, of course. Top Gear already has its lineup cemented and has released the first trailer for the new iteration, while Jeremy Clarkson and co.’s show hasn’t totally come together yet, although filming has started. The Amazon show won't be hitting the schedule until next fall sometime. Top Gear is coming in May.
You can watch the catch the first full trailer for the BBC series, below.
