Turner Launching Movie Streaming Service

26 Apr, 2016 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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SVOD service will be co-managed by the Criterion Collection

Turner Broadcasting System is launching a subscription streaming service devoted to classic movies beginning this fall. Dubbed “,” the unpriced service will be co-managed by Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection. As part off the agreement, Criterion would move its 1,000+ title movie collection from Hulu to the new service.

The SVOD service underscores Turner and parent Time Warner’s strategic move toward establishing proprietary over-the-top video services directly to consumers instead of licensing all content to third-party service such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Time Warner, whose Warner Bros. unit licenses select movies and TV shows to Amazon Prime and Hulu, currently licenses catalog titles to Warner Archive, a $9.99 monthly ($84.99 annual) streaming service.

"FilmStruck is a terrific example of our strategy to meet consumer demand for great content across all screens. It's tailor-made for the die-hard movie enthusiast who craves a deep, intimate experience with independent, foreign and arthouse films. And it takes advantage of TCM's powerful curation capabilities, as well as its proven track record in building a long-term relationship with passionate film fans,” Turner CEO John Martin said in a statement.

FilmStruck will also feature titles from Janus Films, Flicker Alley, Icarus, Kino, Milestone and Zeitgeist, among others. Movies include Seven Samurai, A Hard Day’s Night, A Room With a View, Blood Simple, My Life as a Dog, Mad Max, Breaker Morant and The Player.

“Hulu’s been a great home for the past five years, but Filmstruck is being built from the ground up exclusively for film lovers and will allow us to present films with the kind of robust curation and supplemental features that Criterion fans have come to expect from our Blu-ray and DVD releases,” said Peter Becker, president of Criterion Collection.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in March announced it would for the first time distribute the Criterion Collection outside North America — beginning April in the United Kingdom.

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