Turner’s FilmStruck Subscription Platform To Begin Serving Film Nerds On October 19th

Movie buffs will soon have a new way to watch their favorite classics. FilmStruck, a subscription video on-demand service launched by Turner and the Criterion Collection, will open up shop on October 19th.

Like many other SVOD options, FilmStruck is looking to sell subscriptions by appealing to a niche audience. Rather than licensing the most popular modern Hollywood blockbusters, Turner has cobbled together a library that includes some of the best movies from throughout the century-plus history of the film industry. A few of the titles FilmStruck is promoting at launch include the original Mad Max, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, and Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Those flicks, as well as many others, will be arranged into more than 70 themed playlists, which will be refreshed on a regular basis.

FilmStruck’s audience is likely to overlap with that of the Turner Classic Movies TV channel, but Turner sees its two film-based offerings as distinct. “Turner smartly identified a strategic way to move into the direct-to-consumer business by creating an over-the-top offering that was additive to the TV landscape, with programming not readily available in the streaming marketplace and that was completely differentiated from what TCM already offers,” said Coleman Breland, president of Turner Content Distribution and TCM, in a press release. “FilmStruck super-serves a niche and devoted audience of film fans and will be a strong addition to Turner’s portfolio of leading brands.”

While the movies Turner brings to the table have definite appeal, FilmStruck knows that its biggest get is the Criterion Collection, which it has poached from Hulu. While the new service is available for a base price of $6.99 per month, viewers who wish to stream the hundreds of acclaimed films distributed by Criterion will need to bump their monthly commitment up to $10.99 or pay $99 for a year-long subscription.

If you’re interested in FilmStruck but not sure whether you want to pony up for the deluxe version, you have some time to decide; the Criterion Collection won’t arrive on the new service until November 11th.