FilmStruck UK goes live
David Farnor | On 02, Feb 2018
FilmStruck UK has quietly gone live in the last 24 hours, as the streaming service begins its entry into the British market.
A joint venture between Turner International’s Digital Ventures & Innovation Group and Warner Bros. Digital Networks, the subscription site has teamed up with the UK’s own Curzon as it makes its first steps into international waters. Branded as Filmstruck Curzon, the site has now opened its doors to welcome new subscribers. The price is £5.99 a month or £59.90 for a year’s subscription, both of which are available with a 7-day free trial.
The site is still in its early stages, with a promise to be available on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android and iOS, but it is not yet available on Fire TV and users have taken to social media to report bugs. While what is essentially a beta launch may not be up to full speed yet, though, you can now access the service’s catalogue to see what’s available for your monthly pennies. Usual suspects such as Battleship Potemkin and The Gold Rush are present and correct, while the library also ranges from John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) and 1958’s The Blob to Darren Aronofsky’s Reqiuem for a Dream and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Diabolique (1966), accompanied by a splash of Hitchcock, including I Confess and Dial M for Murder.
Watch this space for our usual comprehensive guide to what’s new, coming soon and worth watching, but for now, a selection of highlights to check out include Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights (2011), Drake Doremus’ Breathe In, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Claire Denis’ Beau Travail, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979), and, intriguingly, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990), a collection of eight overlapping short films from the Japanese master director.
FilmStruck launches in the UK
19th January 2018
FilmStruck is officially coming to the UK.
The subscription service, which is a joint venture between Turner International’s Digital Ventures & Innovation Group and Warner Bros. Digital Networks, first opened its online doors in 2016, becoming a popular platform for cinephiles, thanks to its focus on classic, arthouse and indie cinema. Now, the streaming service is looking to do the same for British film lovers, as FilmStruck makes its first steps into international waters – a multi-market roll out is planned over the next two years.
With Turner and Warner Bros. behind it, FilmStruck will bring together a broad and diverse movie catalogue that will “draw primarily on the extensive Warner Bros. library and the Criterion Collection library”. From mainstream, cult and indie classics to foreign and documentary film, the eclectic collection will also include exclusive bonus material, such as cast interviews, Criterion original mini-documentaries and hosted introductions, and original artwork.
In the UK, FilmStruck will team up with Britain’s own cinephile giant, Curzon, to take on arthouse subscription rivals, such as MUBI and BFI Player+. Launching as FilmStruck Curzon, the site will feature a branded Curzon area within the service curated in collaboration with the distributor, which will include access to titles from the Curzon Artificial Eye film library. The agreement with Curzon also includes opportunities to leverage its established market position, experience, consumer base and cinema operations and to launch additional Curzon branded cinema services in other markets.
“We’re thrilled to take this significant step together as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Digital Networks, after many years of growing collaboration across various other projects with Warner Bros. as a whole,” says Aksel van der Wal, Executive Vice President, DV&I. “FilmStruck helps us realise a shared vision for what we see as a clear gap in the market for film lovers around the world. We’re also delighted to be working with a partner of Curzon’s heritage and prestige.”
“It is tremendously exciting to see Filmstruck Curzon launching in UK,” comments Philip Mordecai, Director of Digital Ventures, Curzon. “We look forward to collaborating on the curation of the site and introducing this excellent service to our customers across the Curzon group. Our shared vision with Turner and Warner Bros. Digital teams has enormous potential. Curzon is thrilled to be joining at this early stage and see this collaboration as a further marker in our commitment to premium consumer services in the UK and internationally.”
The addition of FilmStruck to its international portfolio of brands is also part of Turner’s wider strategy to do more in the OTT space and expand its options to create fan-centric experiences that engage new audiences.
FilmStruck Curzon is expected to roll out in the UK in the coming weeks and will be available “on most phones and tablets”, online and on TV via streaming devices.