72 OVER THE TOP FilmStruck
FilmStruck users – and Criterion fans – were stunned. Outraged even. It was as if the British Museum had said out of the blue: “Sorry, we’re closed from now on. Good luck, everyone!” Immediately there were online petitions to save the service. Comedian Bill Hader bemoaned the closure in his acceptance speech at the IndiWire Awards and Guillermo Del Toro declared: “We will bring it back!” NICHE IS NICE The WarnerMedia announcement continued: “While FilmStruck has a very loyal fan base, it remains largely a niche service.” The fact that FilmStruck is a “niche” service, we have learned at FEED , could actually be a significant asset. Well run, well-targeted niche services – or collections of niche services – seem to be a key to success in the online video space. Unless you’re Amazon, you’re attempt to be all things to all people is probably not going to last in the long term. Even Netflix is honing its service to become more, specifically, well, Netflix. It’s continuing to boost its original content and focusing on crowd pleasing (or at least algorithm-pleasing) genres. You’re not going to see Netflix Sports or Netflix Live or Netflix After Dark. It seems to be true, looking at numerous industry examples, that a highly focused niche video service, whether it’s aimed around a specific sport, hobby, subculture or cultural niche can have real legs. “We plan to take key learnings from FilmStruck to help shape future business decisions in the direct-to-consumer space and redirect this investment back into our collective portfolios,” WarnerMedia continued. “And we’ll be trying to find ways we can bring our library and original content back to the digital space as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone who enjoyed FilmStruck, and we hope you’ll join us as we look forward to what the future brings.” ‘Our library and original content’ sounds like it could refer to the Turner library, as well as Warner Bros’ other holdings, but it would seem to preclude the Criterion Collection. What will happen to the deeply devoted, cinephiliac employees at FilmStruck is anyone’s guess. They may well be scooped up by another classic cinema streaming competitor. Maybe a MUBI. Or more likely some agile, well thought-out start-up. Maybe they’ll even launch one themselves. So what then is the status of the Criterion Collection? WarnerMedia had
acquired the exclusive rights for streaming the Collection on FilmStruck in 2016, taking them away from Hulu who had held the rights to 900 Criterion titles previously. There has been no announcement on the fate of the Collection. Does Warner still own the rights? Do they lapse now that FilmStruck has dissolved? Many are hoping that Criterion had some very good lawyers in 2016. HOLDING CONTENT HOSTAGE Being able to offer huge amounts of content via a streaming service – sometimes at the stroke of a pen – is a double-edged sword. It also means that large amounts of content can vanish at the stroke of a pen. Twenty years ago, if a rights holder went bankrupt, a film fan still had a stack of DVDs (or even VHS tapes) on the
shelf that they could watch at their leisure. They would probably even be utterly unaware that the rights to their favourite film had vanished into no man’s land and were unlikely to find a home for the next five years. But in the online video world, viewing is dependent entirely on what the rights holder has to offer. We like to talk about how the online world puts the power of choice in the hands of consumers, that it gives them more options than they’ve ever had before. But is this true? Netflix still has a booming DVD subscription service. Or if not booming, certainly respectable. DVD.com, as it’s called, has around 3 million subscribers and earns the company a quarter of a billion dollars a year, and this is a service confined solely to the US.
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