Make sure you’ve got your sunglasses, “Magnum P.I.” reboot fans! Thomas Magnum’s red sports car is speeding its way onto Freevee on Sept. 1, when the first four seasons of the 2018 series will be available to stream for all customers.
This is especially good news for fans of the show because up until now, the first four seasons of “Magnum P.I.” were not available to stream anywhere. The first half of Season 5 of the series is available on Peacock, and the second half of that season will debut on the streamer in 2024.
The reason “Magnum P.I.” has taken this long to get to make all of its episodes available to stream likely has to do with licensing. The show originally premiered on CBS when it first came out in 2018, but the Eye Network decided to cancel it after four seasons. NBC picked up the series for a fifth season, but likely did not acquire the streaming rights to the first four.
Paramount Global may not have thought that “Magnum P.I.” would generate enough traffic to make it a worthwhile addition to its own streaming platforms, or its deal with NBCUniversal may have included a proviso that prevented it from streaming old episodes of the series until now.
Whatever the case may be, the period of limbo for the first four seasons of “Magnum P.I.” is over. Fans of the original series can find it streaming free on select services that carry free ad-supported TV (FAST) channels from NBCU. The show is available on the Universal Action channel, which currently streams on Xumo Play and Freevee.
The arrival of “Magnum P.I.” on Freevee could help NBCU bring eyes to the second half of Season 5 of the show when those episodes bow next year. NBC recently licensed the show “Suits” to Netflix, where it saw a veritable ratings renaissance. Peacock will maintain exclusivity for the fifth season of “Magnum P.I.,” so it may see a nice subscriber bump as users re-engage with the first four seasons of the show on Freevee.
Freevee
Freevee is a free video streaming service that includes on-demand access to thousands of movies and TV shows. The service also offers 400+ virtual live streaming channels like Dove Channel, CON TV, Docurama, Tastemade, and AMC Presents. Freevee was previously known as IMDb TV.