New FilmStruck SVOD Service from Turner Classic and Criterion Collection Brings a Focus to Foreign and Classic Films

As Netflix has ramped up its own original programming, it has cut back significantly on catalog titles. By one estimate, Netflix has dropped about one-third of its film and TV titles over the last two years.

Time Warner, whose Turner Classic Movies is the go-to cable channel for classic movies, saw an opening for foreign and indie movies and launched FilmStruck in October for $6.99 a month plus the option to add the Criterion Channel film catalog for an additional $4 a month.

FilmStruck will rotate its titles frequently with recommendation lists and series like The Masters that will feature films by particular directors and Cinema Passport that will feature films from particular countries. The Criterion Channel will feature films — and lots of extras — from the Criterion Collection, which has been producing special editions of classic and contemporary films for more than 30 years.

Decider sat down with Jennifer Dorian, the general manager for Turner Classic Movies and FilmStruck, and Jonathan Turell, the CEO of Criterion Collection, to talk about the new service.

DECIDER: How much does the FilmStruck catalog overlap with the existing catalog for Turner Classic Movies?

JENNIFER DORIAN: We designed FilmStruck for an audience who loves independent and foreign films and TCM is focused on classic Hollywood films, so there’s only about a 5 percent overlap.

That wasn’t what I expected when I first saw that TCM was launching a streaming service. I assumed it would be for Turner’s MGM and Warner Bros. catalogs.

JENNIFER DORIAN: I actually regret that we made a big deal about this being part of TCM because it has caused some confusion. It’s coming from the curation and the expertise of TCM, but it’s not about the TCM library. This is a completely new brand serving a different need. TCM will continue to be strong on linear cable and have its own Watch TCM app, so it’s two complementary brands with their own unique libraries.

How did the initial conversation with Criterion come about?

JENNIFER DORIAN: When we were first incubating the idea of focusing on foreign and independent films, the Criterion library and Criterion’s ability to go deep with extra material on films was at the top of the list. TCM’s head of programming Charlie Tabesh had a great relationship with Criterion from having licensing conversations with them for 20 years. Criterion had been streaming on Hulu and was thinking about their next movie, so the timing was fortuitous.

JONATHAN TURELL: We have always respected the TCM brand and what they’ve been able to program. They have the infrastructure, the background and the knowledge to create programmed channels, and they brought a lot of technical knowledge to the table that we just didn’t have.

Are more than half of subscribers adding the Criterion Collection?

JENNIFER DORIAN: Yes, most people are doing FilmStruck plus the Criterion Channel.

I searched for 12 Criterion titles on FilmStruck and found all of them. Will full Criterion collection be on the service all the time?

JONATHAN TURELL: We would love to have all of our titles all of the time, and we’re keeping everything up all the time where we do have streaming rights. Where we can license shorter windows for movies where we don’t have streaming rights, we’ll try and do that as much as we can. We’ll rotate in a half-dozen to a dozen new titles a month.

You recently had some extras for Mulholland Drive on the Criterion Channel that were only available for a limited time. Is that a licensing issue or something you’re doing to promote certain films?

JONATHAN TURELL: We’re trying to surface a complete edition of a different film every Wednesday — like Mulholland Drive and Blood Simple, which were the first two — where we put all of the supplements that we can on streaming. The limitations on not making everything available all the time come from different things. On Mulholland Drive, we don’t have streaming rights as part of the Janus library, so we went and licensed that separately for a limited time. That film will actually disappear after a few months, but most of the Criterion Collection will be there all the time.

Will the FilmStruck side have a permanent collection, or are you rolling a lot of titles in and out?

JENNIFER DORIAN: It will be mostly rotating titles that will stay for six-month windows.

The interface is organized primarily around search and recommendations. Are you looking at other criteria like searching by year, searching by country, etc.?

JENNIFER DORIAN: This first interface is not perfect. One of the areas where we want to make some improvements is in search. We want users to be able to search by director, search by country of origin and search by year.

JONATHAN TURELL: I like the iPad app a lot. It’s a great interface, and the video loads quickly. The additional search criteria is something we think will make the catalog easier to navigate.

Will FilmStruck and Criterion have similar-sized catalogs?

JENNIFER DORIAN: They’ll be about the same.

What were the considerations for branding FilmStruck as a new nameplate?

JENNIFER DORIAN: We knew that we wanted to communicate that the service was by film lovers and for film lovers, and we wanted a new name that would be available for a global trademark. FilmStruck says so much about how emotional and visceral film love and film culture are.

I assume the primary demographic is college-educated, high-income and a little older?

JENNIFER DORIAN: College-educated, high-income, 25- to 54-year-olds. Our early research shows that it would skew about 60 percent male, and our enrollment to date has been about 70 percent male. That may be because early adopters skew male. Another important factor is that the audience is already heavily into streaming and ready to add niche, independent streaming services to their portfolio. And I was surprised that they actually skew to subscribers for pay TV, so subscribers are heavily invested in their home entertainment and spend more than the average American on theatrical, DVD and other film-related spending.

So your target is people who are already have cable, already have Netflix — people who watch a lot of film and TV at home.

JENNIFER DORIAN: A lot of people are passionate about film and want to invest their leisure time and disposable income into that hobby. They’re more likely to have pay TV. They’re more likely to stream on Netflix or Amazon or Hulu. They’re more likely to add another service. They’re more likely to go to the movies, buy DVDs and read film blogs and magazines.

How much concern to you have about being stuck between an older demographic that isn’t as SVOD friendly and a younger demographic that isn’t as interested in these kind of movies?

JENNIFER DORIAN: Not at all. There are a lot of people who want international and independent films. They like movies that are four months old and 40 years old, movies from the Criterion Collection, movies from TCM. They’re very engaged and interested.

Is TCM a network that makes sense for Turner to launch as a freestanding streaming service at some point?

JENNIFER DORIAN: TCM is a healthy, thriving business on cable. We always have to think about how to reach out to consumers. For right now, the combination of VOD, Watch TCM and linear cable is a really good distribution strategy for TCM.

And you just launched the Watch TCM app on Amazon Fire TV.

JENNIFER DORIAN: That’s correct, and it’s available on iOS and Android, and you can watch it on your desktop in a web browser. We want TCM to be on Apple TV and other platforms, and we’re working on those.

Will commentary tracks be available on a lot of the Criterion films?

JONATHAN TURELL: We will have commentary for a good number of films. Some of these films are out of print on home video, so we’re having to go back to acquire licensing for films for FilmStruck to pair with our commentary tracks.

Will new Criterion titles go online the same time as they go on DVD and Blu-ray, or will there generally be a delay?

JONATHAN TURELL: On titles where we have streaming rights, which will be 60-70 percent of new releases, the idea will be to premiere as close to day and date as we can.

Criterion was already set up as a curated catalog — something that cut across studios, different periods of time, different languages. That’s what streaming apps like Netflix would come to emulate when they launched.

JONATHAN TURELL: Everybody finds their niche in some ways. Netflix is doing a lot of original productions, which is where their niche is now, and they want to be many things to many people. When we put a film out on Criterion, we want to know why. We want it to be a film that we want as a Criterion title.

And Netflix is ceding some space for niche movie services as they cut back on catalog movies to spend more money on their originals.

JONATHAN TURELL: I think they created that void intentionally and not accidentally or stupidly. Movies are available in a lot of places, and Netflix originals are available on Netflix. One of the challenges we have is to get people to tune in and understand why Criterion picked a particular movie.

Are there particular things you can do on streaming that you really haven’t been able to do on DVD and Blu-ray?

JONATHAN TURELL: On films like Silence of the Lambs or King Kong that are out of print right now on Blu-ray, we can surface them on the channel for limited periods. Another area where we have a unique opportunity is to surface great shorter features like a 10-minute feature from a Blu-ray that works well on streaming as a standalone feature for when you only have 10 minutes to watch something. That’s a different experience than the way you watch extras when you’re watching a Blu-ray.

Blu-ray sales are up this year after being down significantly in 2014 and 2015. Do you have any theory on that?

JONATHAN TURELL: We’re seeing an uptick this year. The increase at 6 percent or 8 percent is small enough that it could be title-driven. We released Dr. Strangelove over the summer and it did enough business to account for a year-over-year increase for July.

Are you planning to report your subscriber numbers either annually or quarterly?

JENNIFER DORIAN: We’re still figuring out a policy on that, but right now we’re not planning on sharing subscriber numbers.

Would 500,000 subscribers be a conservative first-year goal?

JENNIFER DORIAN: We want to be one of the top 10 SVOD services by subscribers, but I don’t have a goal that we can share publicly.

How much is Turner looking at FilmStruck as a science project for how to do an SVOD service?

Turner definitely views FilmStruck as a learning lab to build new skills and collaborate across the data, technology, programming and licensing teams. This is part of a vision to reinvent television with the consumer at the center.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider and is also a contributing writer for Playboy. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.