Turner’s FilmStruck streaming TV service will bring art house movies into homes

Turner Broadcasting is launching a new over-the-top streaming TV service that will bring art house movies into the home.

Turner plans to announce Tuesday that it’s launching FilmStruck, a subscription service offering cult, foreign and independent films that appeal to movie aficionados.

The service, which will be available starting this fall for a monthly fee to be determined, will be the exclusive streaming home for the Criterion Collection library, which includes such classic titles as “Seven Samurai,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “A Room With a View,” “My Life as a Dog,” “Mad Max” and “The Player.”

FilmStruck will be curated by the programmers at Turner Classic Movies, the film cable network that has developed a highly devoted audience thanks to its commercial-free presentations of often restored legendary Hollywood movies. Criterion will collaborate with TCM to create its own dedicated channel on FilmStruck.

Criterion’s library will be coming to FilmStruck from Hulu Plus, where the films are currently available for streaming.

As Turner’s first over-the-top TV offering in the U.S., FilmStruck will go after a younger audience — one that has become accustomed to getting movies through streaming video services such as Netflix and Amazon.

But Coleman Breland, president of TCM and Turner Content Distribution, said it would be programmed to appeal to passionate and knowledgeable film fans of any age.

“We’re good at curating,” Breland said. “We took the skill set for TCM and turned it into a new brand with a very targeted audience.”

Breland expects the FilmStruck user to be aged 25 to 44 and a heavy moviegoer, spending an average of $80 a month on films.

The potential audience is more likely to have subscriptions to premium cable channels such as HBO and streaming video-on-demand services.

By offering content not found on those channels, Breland believes that Turner can get that group to take on another monthly fee.

“We believe it’s a bit of an underserved audience,” Breland said. “If you’re putting this many incredible cult, foreign and indie films at their fingertips — they’ll say ‘I’ll take this service all day long.’”

In addition to Criterion, Breland said FilmStruck would have films from other independent studios such as Janus, Flicker Alley, Icarus, Zeitgeist and Kino.

It will carry films from major studios as well, including Warner Bros., as long as the titles have credibility with the art house crowd.

“It’s a very targeted, distinct type of film that we’re looking for,” Breland said.

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