According to Deadline, Stankey is attempting to find a compromise so that FilmStruck’s library of art house movies and foreign films doesn’t go completely extinct in terms of streaming availability. Stankey’s decision comes after pressure from the industry to save FilmStruck. In addition to Anderson and Nolan’s letter sent yesterday, filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg wrote their own letter trying to get WarnerMedia to see the value of FilmStruck.

While the report should make FilmStruck fans more optimistic about its future, it should be noted that any type of new version of the service wouldn’t launch until about a year from now. WarnerMedia is set to offer a package deal of streaming services in the fourth quarter of 2019, and it’s here where an alternate version of FilmStruck would launch. As of now, FilmStruck is still expected to close its doors November 29.

Deadline’s report only mentions a new version of FilmStruck taking shape under WarnerMedia’s new streaming service, which means the jury is still out on the fate of The Criterion Collection. FilmStruck was best known for being the exclusive streaming home for Criterion titles. On the same day FilmStruck announced its closing, Criterion issued a statement saying it was working on a way to bring its library and original content back to the digital space as soon as possible. IndieWire has reached out to Criterion for further comment.

The latest FilmStruck news arrives as directors continue to put the pressure on WarnerMedia to save the service. Additionally, the online petition to save FilmStruck has over 53,000 signatures and counting as of this posting.

The move appeared to be the latest by WarnerMedia, under AT&T’s ownership, to streamline operations by cutting niche-oriented business ventures. Two sources familiar with the decision said the plan to kill FilmStruck was made prior to AT&T’s closing the Time Warner deal; in any case, the strategy aligns with the new WarnerMedia blueprint to shift resources to mass-market entertainment services.

The FilmStruck business will cease U.S. and international operations on Nov. 29, 2018, and the service stopped accepting signups on Oct. 26. A Turner rep declined to comment on how many employees will be affected by the closure or provide info on how many employees work on FilmStruck.

In a statement, Turner and WB Digital Networks said, “We’re incredibly proud of the creativity and innovations produced by the talented and dedicated teams who worked on FilmStruck over the past two years. While FilmStruck has a very loyal fanbase, it remains largely a niche service. 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.”

The shutdown of FilmStruck, which debuted in November 2016, comes after two other WarnerMedia digital units have gotten the axe.

Warner Bros. Digital Networks’ DramaFever, a subscription VOD service specializing in Korean dramas, was abruptly shut down on Oct. 16. One week ago, Turner announced that it was pulling the plug on edgy digital-content and TV studio Super Deluxe.

AT&T earlier this month signaled that it would move to restructure the WarnerMedia video-streaming portfolio. As part of announcing plans for a broad subscription-streaming entertainment service anchored by HBO that would pull in content from other parts of WarnerMedia, AT&T said it would be “consolidating resources from sub-scale D2C [direct-to-consumer] efforts.”

A source familiar with AT&T’s strategy said the telco is looking to eliminate peripheral projects that aren’t major producers of revenue. “They felt Time Warner overall had too many initiatives,” the exec said. “[AT&T] have their hands full. They have no time to think about, ‘What do we do with this growth property?'”

FilmStruck offered a lineup of some 1,800 contemporary and classic arthouse, indie, foreign and cult films and also was the exclusive internet-streaming home to the Criterion Collection of movies. Earlier this year, it added Warner Bros.’ library of classic films; WB shut down the Warner Archive service and migrated customers over to FilmStruck. The service was priced at $10.99 per month with access to the Criterion Collection library, and $6.99 monthly without it.

FilmStruck was developed and managed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in conjunction with Warner Bros. Digital Networks, overseen by Coleman Breland, Turner’s president of content experiences and president of TCM and FilmStruck. The companies declined to disclose how many subscribers FilmStruck had signed up.

Titles on FilmStruck had included “Casablanca,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Music Man,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “The Thin Man” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” from Warner Bros. Other movies that were available on FilmStruck previously had included “Babette’s Feast,” “Blow Out,” “Boyhood,” “Breaker Morant,” “Chicago,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “My Life as a Dog,” “Our Song,” “The Player,” “A Room with a View,” “Seven Samurai,” “The Seventh Seal,” “Thelma & Louise,” “The Times of Harvey Milk” and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”

On Friday, the FilmStruck site posted this message: “We regret to inform you that FilmStruck will be shutting down. Our last day of service will be November 29, 2018, and we are currently no longer enrolling new subscribers. All current FilmStruck subscribers will receive an email with details about your account and the refund process as applicable. Please see the options below for more information or email the customer service team at help@filmstruck.com.”

Turner and WB Digital Networks launched FilmStruck internationally this year. The debut launch was in the the U.K., where it rolled out in conjunction with cinema operator Curzon. In June, FilmStruck launched in France and Spain with local films and titles from the Warner Bros. and Criterion libraries. Turner had appointed Kerensa Samanidis, formerly of the British Film Institute, to run the service internationally.

— Stewart Clarke contributed to this report.

ground-breaking films, from genres such as mainstream, cult, independent, art house, classic and documentary film as well as the best of British and foreign cinema. The service draws primarily on the extensive Warner Bros. library and the Criterion Collection, as well as other global and local content partners.

The UK is the joint venture’s initial launch market in what is planned as a multi-market roll out over the next two years. The service will launch in the UK first as FilmStruck Curzon, in collaboration with the iconic independent cinema brand.

For film aficionados and enthusiasts alike, FilmStruck’s on demand service features a highly accessible and regularly refreshed selection of critically acclaimed films from across the decades, unlocking the stories that captivated audiences upon their release and which continue to resonate today. The service has a carefully curated Themed area, selected by film experts, to optimise discoverability and introduce ‘new’ titles to curious audiences.

AVAILABLE TO WATCH ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE

FilmStruck will add new content each month allowing subscribers to instantly stream legendary releases as varied as Christian Bale’s explosive American Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock’s all-time classic North by Northwest, or the cult phenomenon Little Shop of Horrors. Subscribers will discover powerful performances and celebrated movies from the rich libraries of International content partners Warner Bros. (Magnolia (1999); Mystic River (2003); My Own Private Idaho (1991) and The Criterion Collection; Diabolique (1996), Tampopo (1985); Black Orpheus (1959). They will also find era-defining titles supplied by UK Content partners Curzon Artificial Eye Library; Archipelego (2010); Wuthering Heights (2011) Funny Games (2009), Park Circus (Richard III (1955) and Kew Media Group; Lady Vengeance (2005).

 The Criterion Collection theme will feature, Criterion Editions and Criterion mini-documentaries and the specially branded Curzon area, curated in collaboration with Curzon Cinema, including access to titles from the Curzon Artificial Eye film library.

The Criterion Collection theme will feature, Criterion Editions and Criterion mini-documentaries and the specially branded Curzon area, curated in collaboration with Curzon Cinema, including access to titles from the Curzon Artificial Eye film library.

Other Themes include past BAFTA & Oscar® winners, Directors collections such as Ingmar Bergman plus Rock Stars on Film, Cult Picks of the Month and popular genres such as Film Noir, Sci-Fi and Horror to name just a few. Film fans can also deepen their cinematic knowledge by accessing FilmStruck’s exclusive bonus material which includes; cast interviews, hosted intros and original artwork. There’s something for everyone.

[…}

Filmstruck’s UK service is the first in what is planned as a multi-market international roll out. Additional territories are planned to follow later this year with film catalogues localised for each country.

The corporate cousins reached a deal to stock Turner’s FilmStruck with more than 600 classic Hollywood films each month from the Warner Bros. library. At the same time, WB’s Warner Archive subscription-streaming service — launched in 2013 — will be shut down, and current customers will be migrated over to FilmStruck over the next few weeks.

Titles in Warner Bros.’ catalog coming to FilmStruck include many that have never been available on a subscription video-on-demand platform. Those include “Casablanca,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Singin’ In the Rain,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Music Man,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “The Thin Man,” “Cat People,” “A Night At The Opera,” “An American In Paris” and “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?”

“It was a pretty easy decision” to shutter Warner Archive and add WB’s movie catalog to FilmStruck, said Craig Hunegs, president of Warner Bros. Digital Networks and president of business and strategy for Warner Bros. Television Group.

“We had a decision to make on Warner Archive. We were going to go bigger, add more films, and invest in improving the user experience,” Hunegs said. “But after sitting down and looking at it, rather than having two overlapping services going after the same audience, we decided to combine them.”

With the addition of WB’s films, FilmStruck lineup will expand to more than 1,800 movies per month, up from around 1,200 when it first launched. The companies declined to reveal how many subscribers FilmStruck or Warner Archive have signed up, but Hunegs said that FilmStruck — which bowed in late 2016 — had many times more subs.

The No. 1 request from FilmStruck users was to have access to classic Hollywood films, in addition to the lineup of art house, indie, foreign and cult films on the service, according to execs. FilmStruck is managed under Turner’s Turner Classic Movies division. Pricing of FilmStruck, which starts at $6.99 per month, will remain unchanged.

“We never really thought about raising the price. We never went down the path of, ‘How do we make more money?'” said Coleman Breland, president of Turner Classic Movies, FilmStruck and Turner Content Experiences. The goal was to super-serve film aficionados, and now FilmStruck has what he touted as “the deepest streaming roster on the planet in terms of indies and classics.”

Also under the Turner-Warner Bros. Digital Networks partnership, each month FilmStruck will feature the Warner Bros. classics in a curated collection of about two dozen films. The feature, called TCM Select, will include introductions by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz produced exclusively for FilmStruck, along with rare archival content and bonus material.

In addition, FilmStruck will introduce new curated themes around WB’s Hollywood classics such as “Rogers & Astaire: The Complete Collection,” “Neo-Noir,” and a “Star of the Week” theme featuring titles with Bette Davis, Hepburn and Tracy, Ava Gardner and others.

FilmStruck in the U.S. includes exclusive access to the Criterion Collection of films, which are available to subscribers of the $10.99 monthly (or $99 annually) package. The service has films licensed from major studios — Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. — as well as indie distributors including Janus Films, Flicker Alley, Icarus Films, Kino, Milestone, Zeitgeist, Film Movement, Global Lens, First Run Features, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Shout Factory.

Hunegs noted that Warner Archive subscribers will be gaining access to a lower-priced streaming service (Warner Archive had been $9.99 per month) with a much bigger bucket of movies. “Warner Archive was an early play in creating a streaming service,” he said. “We were learning as we went… but I don’t think we quite got it right.”

Time Warner now has several direct-to-consumer streaming plays, including HBO Now, Turner’s Boomerang cartoon service, DramaFever, and the forthcoming DC Entertainment service. It also has launched FilmStruck in the U.K. and plans to expand FilmStruck to other countries; the international versions will also roll in the Warner Bros. classic films.

But will the bulked-up FilmStruck over-the-top service peel viewers away from the TCM linear cable channel? Breland doesn’t think so. About 80% of the audience for Turner Classic Movies is 55-plus, whereas FilmStruck’s target demo is 25-44, he said.

“The TCM brand has value, and the exclusive [TCM Select] content makes [FilmStruck] an experience that feels a little like TCM, but I don’t think it lowers the value” of the linear network, Breland said. He added that Turner is contemplating offering a multiplex of TCM channels to pay-TV operators, grouped around themes like Westerns or comedies.

FilmStruck is available on Roku, Google’s Chromecast, fourth-generation Apple TV devices, Amazon Fire TV, the web, and iOS and Android devices.

More specialised platforms such as the BFI Player and the rolling, curated menu of Mubi offer more rarefied options, but are by nature idiosyncratically selective. Even Amazon Prime might not help you if you have an immediate yen for an old Hollywood standard such as The Big Sleep. Never has the musty tactility of the video shop been more sorely missed.

So the arrival on our digital shores of new streaming service Filmstruck, a US import much vaunted by American cinephiles since its launch there in late 2016, has been eagerly awaited by film-savvy Brits – at least, those who haven’t yet accessed it through a border-busting tangle of virtual private networks.

Created in conjunction with arthouse cinema chain Curzon (but separate from their own Curzon Home Cinema platform), Filmstruck UK opened shop rather quietly earlier this month with little overt marketing; word of mouth appears to be doing much of the work for them. And at first blush, it plugs the aforementioned gap in the streaming market rather handsomely.

A subscription service for serious film lovers, its current selection dates back to 1925 (Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin) and goes up to 2013 (Georgian gem In Bloom, previously celebrated in this column) – a recent-but-not-that-recent endpoint, rather tacitly making the point that Filmstruck’s primary function is retrospective. The idea here is not to bring the current cinema to your living room; rather, it’s a place either to revisit old favourites or to catch up with that canon title you’ve always meant to see, or might even have lied about seeing, in a welcoming, no-nonsense online environment.

Which is to say that, at least at this early stage, Filmstruck UK is pleasing, even comforting, without being revolutionary. Its archive, principally built from the extensive back catalogues of Warner Bros, Turner International and Curzon Artificial Eye, currently comprises just over 160 titles: a toe in the water, one hopes. It’s a classy if not especially experimental list: arthouse standards (Kie?lowski’s Three Colours trilogy), vintage film noir (ah, there’s The Big Sleep), a small subset titled “Korean Cinema” that turns out to be a quartet of Park Chan-wook’s genre jolters, and so on and so forth.

There’s little of the bracing esoterica that Mubi often mingles into its monthly roster, its silent cinema selection currently extends to Eisenstein only, and God only knows how 1998’s abysmal, Gwyneth Paltrow-starring Hitchcock remake A Perfect Murder slipped into the mix. But for £5.99 a month (or £59.90 annually), it’d qualify as a relative treasure trove even without its principal selling point to geeks: a Criterion Collection section, gathering 34 of the high-end DVD label’s impeccably restored rereleases in slickly streamable format.

Physical media devotees may scoff, but with Blu-rays of Criterion’s gorgeous presentations of Andrei Tarkovsky’s glistening, disquieting Stalker, Nicolas Roeg’s sun-stricken mindwarp Walkabout or Juzo Itami’s erotic ramen odyssey Tampopo going for £20 a pop, accessing the lot for a fiver a month is about as sexy a bargain as the streaming world currently has to offer. A new generation of film nerds will be raised on it.

In related news, You.i TV announced it extended the cross-platform reach of its video experience platform by adding support for Roku Scene Graph 7.6. It says apps built on You.i Engine for Roku support the standard monetization and discovery features of the platform including deep linking, in-app purchasing, analytics, and Roku Advertising Framework (RAF). Filmstruck is first-to-market on this solution with only an 86KB BrightScript footprint.

�By enabling brands to extend their experiences to a market leading platform like Roku, You.i Engine is helping to ensure experience parity across platforms,� Jason Flick, co-founder and CEO of You.i TV, says. �This means content providers don�t need to think twice when looking to achieve maximum reach.�

“FilmStruck will allow viewers to watch movies anywhere and anytime on the device of their choice, in a completely ad-free environment, and is slated to launch in Fall 2016,” Turner reports.

The service is developed and managed by Turner Classic Movies in collaboration with the Criterion Collection, and promises classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films. Turner also says that FilmStruck will be the new exclusive streaming home for the Criterion Collection, which will include the Criterion Channel, a new service programmed and curated by Criterion.

In a press release, Turner says this is part of its overall strategy to “innovate beyond the traditional television ecosystem by providing rich viewing experiences that drive engagement across all platforms.”

"FilmStruck is a terrific example of our strategy to meet consumer demand for great content across all screens,” John Martin, chairman and CEO at Turner, says. “It's tailor-made for the diehard movie enthusiast who craves a deep, intimate experience with independent, foreign and art house films.”

"TCM is leading Turner's strategic move into the direct-to-consumer business with a truly differentiated and distinct streaming product that adds tremendous value to our portfolio," Coleman Breland, president of TCM and Turner Content Distribution, adds.