Turner To Launch FilmStruck SVOD Service On Oct. 19 For $6.99 A Month

With a launch scheduled for October 19, Turner today filled in some of the missing information about FilmStruck — the subscription video on demand service from Turner Classic Movies it announced earlier this year for fans of arthouse, indie, foreign, and cult films.

A basic subscription will go for $6.99 a month. Those willing to pay $10.99 can add The Criterion Channel. Turner says it will offer Criterion’s film library plus “special features, along with channel-exclusive original programming such as filmmaker profiles, master classes, and curated series by celebrated guests from the film world and beyond.”

Fans can save some cash by paying $99 for an annual subscription to FilmStruck + The Criterion Channel.

Criterion’s library moved this year to Turner Classic Movies from Hulu, where it had been had been available since 2011 after moving from Netflix.

Initially, FilmStruck will just be available on Amazon Fire TV, web, iOS and Android devices. Turner will add Apple TV and other platforms and devices in what it describes as “the coming months.”

FilmStruck will offer “a thoughtfully curated experience around hard-to-find, critically acclaimed, independent films from the most celebrated libraries in the world,” TCM General Manager Jennifer Dorian says. She expects it to be a “must-have for passionate film lovers.”

FilmStruck’s library will include Janus Films, Flicker Alley, Icarus Films, Kino, Milestone, Zeitgeist, Film Movement, Global Lens, First Run Features, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Shout Factory, as well as releases from major studios led by Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Titles include Babette’s Feast, Blood Simple, Blow-Up, Breaker Morant, A Hard Day’s Night, Mad Max, Metropolis, Moulin Rouge, My Life as a Dog, Paths of Glory, The Player, A Room with a View, Seven Samurai, The Seventh Seal, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Stardust Memories, The Trip to Bountiful, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Woodstock.

To help users navigate, FilmStruck will offer at least 70 curated programming themes including: The Beauty of Italy, Contemporary Israeli Cinema,  Directed by Mike Leigh, Early Kubrick, The Masters,  Political Documentaries, and  World Discoveries.

In March, Turner CEO John Martin disclosed his plan to launch “at least a couple of direct-to-consumer products in the marketplace” by the end of 2016. He said that they “could be at our existing networks” and might be “brand extensions for passions where people might be willing to pay us.”