Criterion Collection Launching $11/Month Streaming Service in April, Coming to tvOS and iOS

[Mac 128]

Sure would be nice if they had at least a partial list of the films they plan to have. And I take it that it will be commercial free, but I wish they would say that.

That’s why there’s a 30 day free trial:

Subscribers will also be able to pay $99.99 for an annual subscription, and each tier will include a 30-day free trial.

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It’s getting to the point where I don’t watch nearly as much stuff as I use to. I can’t afford all these streaming services, just like I couldn’t afford all the high package channels cable offered. I’ll stick to one or two streaming services and right now that’s Netflix and DirecTV Now. Netflix is pushing my loyalty discontinuing Marvel shows and raising their prices, and I’ll leave DirecTV Now in a heartbeat if I ever lose my discount cause their service is ****. It’ll be interesting to see what Disney+ and Apple bring to the table. Like I said though 1 or 2 streaming services tops. Not paying for more than that.

That’s why you have a few friends to share accounts with. I have two friends with whom I subscribe to one service, and they subscribe to another, and we share each other’s services. We keep it two two a service, and never have any problems with streaming allowances. They have other friends they swap with for other services. So between two friends I have 4 services, for the price of the two I subscribe to.

So based on these 2 facts:

1) The Criterion Collection contains films that are currently available to be streamed on Netflix and other subscription sources.

2) Per their statement: "The Criterion Collection will be EXCLUSIVELY available to stream on the Criterion Channel."

Thus the result is I will no longer be able to stream the movies from #1 that are available on various sources I already pay for, because they will be taken off of those sources and I'll now need to pay yet another source (Criterion's app) to view them.

This is the point of contention. I don't care what technical role Criterion plays in the process, the fact remains that content they provide openly on other platforms right now will be taken away from those platforms and placed behind yet another paywall solely consisting of their own content.

This is why Netflix is about to have a serious problem. By the end of the year they will be over $10 billion in debt, and facing Apple, Disney, ATT and Comcast, on top of Amazon and Hulu, and all the other minor players. All of those studios will be pulling their content back, leaving pretty much only Sony and Paramount for Netflix to flesh out Netflix increasingly poor original content catalogue, which they are charging more than ever for.

Time to dump your Netflix stock.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

That’s why there’s a 30 day free trial…

True, but if you wait for the 30-day free trial, you can't take advantage of the discounted and locked-in pre-launch rate.

Edit: This assumption turns out to be false (see Mac 128’s post below).

 

[Mac 128]

True, but if you wait for the 30-day free trial, you can't take advantage of the discounted and locked-in pre-launch rate.

Nope. Sign up now and you get both.

https://www.criterionchannel.com/buy/subscription?plan=monthly

 

[Gameboy70]

The problem here though is that it’s Criterion’s “streaming library”, not their entire catalog of movies. I had the Criterion channel with Filmstruck, and it was advertised exactly the same.

No, it wasn't. No service—Hulu, Fandor, Kanopy or Filmstruck—has ever had Criterion's entire streaming collection. Filmstruck launched with a handful of Criterion titles (I found it underwhelming at launch), then trickled out more over time, usually releasing a bundle of titles by a particular auteur at a time, providing a context for marketing. They were still releasing new Criterion titles the week they closed.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Nope. Sign up now and you get both.

https://www.criterionchannel.com/buy/subscription?plan=monthly

Oh, excellent! Thanks for the correction!