Yahoo to Launch 'SNL' Hub Via Deal With Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video

6:20 PM PDT 4/24/2013 by Paul Bond

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Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

Jimmy Fallon, left and Justin Timberlake on "SNL"

The partnership gives the online portal exclusive rights to 38 years of comedy skits and musical performances.

Yahoo is building an archive of 38 years worth of clips from Saturday Night Live through a deal with Broadway Video, the company founded by SNL creator Lorne Michaels.

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The initiative was announced through a blog entry by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

“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,” Mayer wrote.

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Financial terms of the relationship weren’t disclosed.

The deal requires that other sources remove their archived SNL content so that it may reside at a digital hub that Yahoo is building for a planned launch Sept. 1. The content remains exclusive to Yahoo for only a year, though.

Yahoo gets a library of show clips that have aired from the 1975/1976 season through the 2012/13 season, including some musical performances. It also gets rehearsal clips and behind-the-scenes content. Yahoo also has non-exclusive rights to the current season and non-exclusive distribution rights outside of the U.S.

“This deal will ensure that SNL clips from past and future seasons will be even more accessible to fans across all generations,” said Jack Sullivan, CEO of Broadway Video.