TCM Launches New Streaming Service, And Why That’s Great News for Young Cinephiles

Earlier this month, Turner Classic Movies announced they’re launching a new online streaming service called Watch TCM, which will offer TCM channel subscribers the option to stream broadcast movies live, as well as watch a bevvy of classic movies on demand, available anytime on your computer or mobile device.

Patterned more on HBO Go than a subscription service like Netflix, Watch TCM is currently only available to users who already get TCM over cable. Watch TCM also offers a host of behind-the-scenes features like an interactive schedule, background info on the films, image galleries, clips and trailers.

While Watch TCM is only available to cable or satellite subscribers, the Watch TCM mobile app is free for all iPhone, iPad and Android users. The app provides clips and trailers, as well as an image archive where you can post images directly to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. In an effort to foster classic film fandom, there are also links and to TCM’s favorite, fan-curated movie blogs.

As with most new services, there are a few snags, however. Two of the country’s biggest cable providers, DirectTV and Time Warner Cable, are not partnered with TCM to provide Watch TCM to their customers. While TCM is negotiating to widen the scope of their streaming service to the most customers possible, this current omission leaves millions of TCM fans in the dark during the launch of a potentially game-changing service. Also, unlike Netflix, on demand films are only available for 7 days after they air on TCM; as of now, there are no HD movies available.

Despite this soft roll-out, the potential impact of Watch TCM on the online film community is tremendous. “This is simply the most robust collection of fully curated classic-movie content on any platform, anywhere,” a TCM representative said.

In a recent piece at The Dissolve, Matt Singer mused on the “Netflix canon,” and the way Netflix was shaping (and perhaps monopolizing) young cinephiles’ viewing habits. It’s true that Instant Netflix’s selection of classics is pretty abysmal (although their disc service offers a much wider selection of films). What the article failed to account for is the impact of the TCM brand on young people; a quick survey of attendees at the TCM Classic Film Festival, for example, yields more and more evidence that the classic film fan is becoming younger and younger, due in part, by the proliferation of social media fan communities like Twitter’s #TCMParty and Tumblr.

Watch TCM, then, is a major step in the right direction for a channel that caters exclusively to what most film scholars would acknowledge is the traditional classic film canon. Although the on demand service only features one selection from AFI’S 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES (Dr. Strangelove), there are also films from George Cukor, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Howard Hawks, David Lean, Orson Welles and Ernst Lubitsch. And the schedule of on demand titles is changing every week. This is particularly good news for TCM viewers who want to catch a bunch of films from their favorite star, but can’t stay home all day to marathon them on TCM.

From personal experience, I can confirm Matt Singer’s finding that a lot of young cinephiles have abandoned TV in favor of streaming subscriptions like Netflix or Hulu. I don’t even own a television. But I also know that many households share access to on demand services like HBO Go (and now, I suspect, Watch TCM). This new streaming service could be particularly useful for kids who had TCM at home but don’t have access to it now that they’re at college or their own apartment. By catering to the diversity in generational viewing habits (parents at home on TV and their children on computers and mobile devices), TCM could successfully cater to everyone’s tastes and preferences.

Whether Watch TCM becomes an influential player in the streaming game remains to be seen. Their success is directly related to how quickly they can update to HD streaming, how many cable providers they can partner with for the service, and how many titles will be available at any one time to watch online. The release of a streaming service is definitely a positive sign, and proof that the industry is moving inextricably towards online and mobile film viewing as, if not the primary method of viewing movies, at least a necessary alternative to television and home video.