LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Television comedy Seinfeld (1989 to 1998) will stream globally on Netflix starting in October under a deal reached two years ago, Netflix said on Wednesday (Sept 1).

All 180 episodes of Seinfeld, one of the most popular TV comedies of the 1990s, will be available on Netflix starting Oct 1, the streaming platform said in a statement.

Netflix bought the worldwide rights to Seinfeld in 2019 in a deal that allowed the show to stream on Hulu until 2021.

Hollywood trade outlets said at the time that the deal was worth more than US$500 million (S$672 million) and beat offers from other streaming platforms as they raced to sign up popular content and new subscribers.

The 10-time Emmy Award-winning comedy about a group of friends living in New York City was created by comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and ended on NBC television in 1998 after nine seasons.

"Larry and I are enormously grateful to Netflix for taking this chance on us. It takes a lot of guts to trust two schmucks who literally had zero experience in television when we made this thing," Seinfeld said in a tongue-in-cheek statement on Wednesday.

"We really got carried away, I guess. I didn't realise we made so many of them. Hope to recoup god knows how many millions it must have taken to do. But worth all the work if people like it. Crazy project," the 67-year-old added.