Quickflix Signs Lion’s Share of Lionsgate TV

Good news for Nurse Jackie fans frustrated by the latest season airing in SD on Four: you’ll soon be able to view it in HD on Quickflix.

The streaming service has done a deal with Lionsgate Television International that adds not only the hospital comedy to its inventory but also Mad Men, Weeds, Nashville and Orange is the New Black.

Season one of Orange, which TV2 aired in HD, bows here on DVD only on June 18 while part one of the first season of Nashville, which TV One airs in HD, gets a DVD-only release in July.

Mad Men and Weeds are behind Sky’s double pay wall on SoHo, so their Quickflix debut will free them up for non-Sky subscribers who haven’t bought the series on Blu-ray.

The Lionsgate series can be viewed as single episodes or in season passes.

While it’s fantastic to see a local streaming service enhance its library with first-rate fare, the choice pales in comparison to Netflix’s and the pricing is still too high.

Who would pay $63 to stream season three of The Walking Dead in HD when retailers like Mighty Ape are selling it on Blu-ray for less than half that price?

Even so, kudos to Quickflix for concluding a deal that, as Quickflix founder and CEO Stephen Langsford says, “allows us to bring to audiences edgy TV drama series including those not previously broadcast on free-to-air in Australia and New Zealand.”