Life is but a stream for Gina Rodriguez in the Great White North…
Canada’s Shomi has acquired the exclusive streaming rights to The CW‘s Jane the Virgin series, starring the 29-year-old Puerto Rican actress, in a deal that bypasses broadcast.
The licensing agreement with CBS Studios International follows Shomi grabbing the first window rights to another CW show, Rob Thomas‘ iZombie, as part of a deal with Warner Bros.
“Once our exclusive period is up, the studio is free to license these titles for linear broadcast exhibitions on a second window, but no Canadian broadcaster will have these titles before us, or during our exclusive window,” Marni Shulman, head of content and programming at Shomi, told The Hollywood Reporter about the CBS distribution deal.
The Canadian streamer, a joint venture between Rogers Media and Shaw Media, launched last week as Canadian broadcasters compete against streaming goliath Netflix Canada. Shomi earlier agreed to a deal with Sony Pictures Television to acquire the exclusive streaming rights to The Blacklist, which landed on Netflix stateside as a first window.
Shomi is also streaming repeats of U.S. TV hit shows like 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men, DaVinci’s Demons and Black Sails. It also has content deals signed with Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Starz Digital Media and BBC Worldwide North America.
It’s the latest international deal for Rodriguez’s critically acclaimed series.
Last month, CBS Studios International and U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 sealed the deal on a licensing agreement for the exclusive first window, free-to-air broadcast rights to new critically acclaimed comedy Jane the Virgin.