Fullscreen Ventures Into Uncharted VOD Territory – Can It Work?

There’s no question these days that, as consumers of entertainment, we’re incredibly spoiled. I mean, just look around. It’s everywhere. Websites that stream scripted and unscripted fare right to your computer or television, or your tablet, or your phone, networks and cable channels that create online presences for the same purpose, on demand programming that can keep you hooked to your couch for days, it seems to never end.
It’s not just a golden age of television, it’s a golden age of entertainment. So it’s only natural that more and more internet companies would want to follow in the footsteps of Amazon, which has been able to transition from an online bookseller into a recognized and respected content provider. Hell, Amazon won Emmys last year for its programming, and who could have seen that coming, so soon after it started producing original content?

Now, Fullscreen is adding its name to the list, but with a twist. It’s sourcing its original content from the creators and talent that already uses its YouTube channel. People like Grace Helbig, the comedy duo Jack and Dean, Shane Dawson, and geek commentators Andre Meadows and Katie Wilson, among a host of others, are all starring in programming that will be on Fullscreen’s streaming service when it launches on April 26th.

That’s the kind of thing that sets Fullscreen apart from others who may have tried this before, like the ill-fated Snapchat experiment known as Snap Channel. After nine months of trying to develop new material for the online network — including hiring a whole team of people to do so — the company shut it down when it realized it was throwing money away with no real shot at recouping anything.

I should mention another cautionary tale. Let’s not forget that Yahoo made a sizable investment in its Screen program, actually spending millions on a sixth season of the sitcom Community, before closing up shop in January. If that doesn’t give an upstart pause, I don’t know what else would.

What’s interesting about Fullscreen’s venture, though, is not just the built-in programming it has lined up, nor the movies and TV shows it will feature like Dawson’s Creek, Saved By The Bell, Daria, Cruel Intentions, Can’t Hardly Wait, Camp Takota, and more. No, what’s most interesting is the target audience.

Fullscreen is going full-bore after millennials, figuring to, as it says, “bridge the gap between social media and television.” Well, sure. Who wouldn’t want to do that? And when you have a roster of popular personalities at the ready, that certainly makes the jump to a pay service that much easier, doesn’t it?

Oh, yes, the paywall. Fullscreen is going to charge subscribers $4.99 per month for access to programming like a reboot of 70s cult classic Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (starring Helbig and Hannah Hart, above), the comedy series Jack and Dean Of All Trades, the dance drama Making Moves (starring dancer Patrick Cook), as well as several doc and unscripted series, like Zall Good With Alexis G. Zall.

Now, the bold part of this plan is that Fullscreen is going to start charging money for content which, up to now, has been free. It’s also been short form, while the new site will be moving into the more standard television formats. On the one hand, the creators with whom the network is starting its programming have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers, but on the other is the question about whether or not those followers will suddenly start paying for the privilege of continuing to watch.

A monthly subscription to Netflix will run you $9, Hulu is $8 and Amazon Prime is $99 per year plus tax (which comes out to between $8 and $9, depending on where you live). Does Fullscreen’s cheaper price point make it that much more appealing to younger consumers? Probably. What’s undoubtedly more interesting, though, is the idea of a network that speaks directly to them. Dawson’s show is a perfect example. Shane & Friends is not a show for a 40-something guy like me, but it would have been 20 or 30 years ago. In fact, I probably would’ve loved it in high school and college, which is probably why his YouTube channel has close to seven million subscribers. One would think that a good chunk of those would splurge on the five beans a month to keep watching.

One of the smart things about this move is that there aren’t any real competitors. Those apps and sites that appeal to millennials — your Vines, your Periscopes, your Meerkats — are all dependent on users for content. Snapchat’s Discover has been a smashing success (Cosmopolitan’s channel generates almost as many unique page views per month as the magazine’s home page, 19 million versus 20 million, while 21 percent of Buzzfeed’s total traffic is generated by Snapchat Discover, just to name two), but that’s also short form stuff produced by media companies looking to get millennial eyeballs on their material. And while there are plenty of YouTube channels out there, none of them really have the resources to do what Fullscreen is doing. AwesomnessTV is one that comes to mind as a possibility, but a reality? My Magic 8-Ball says “cannot predict now.”

On the flip side, of course, are the potential pitfalls, the most obvious of which is lack of viewership and, thus, abject failure. Just look at Microsoft, which shut down its Xbox Entertainment Studios last year to refocus its priorities on its core business, simply because it couldn’t find a way to make the system work.

Somehow, that doesn’t seem like a reality for Fullscreen, simply because of how it’s starting the endeavor. Armed with so much original content from the jump is not only smart, it seems like the only thing that is really going to draw in the target audience. That is, of course, if anything truly can. Since we try not to be too cynical in these parts, we’ll place our money on Fullscreen making this work, and then see how many imitators sprout up in the coming months in an effort to take advantage of that success.

Neil Turitz is a filmmaker and journalist who has spent close to two decades in the independent film world and writing about Hollywood. Aside from being a successful screenwriter and director, he was also the editor-in-chief of the entertainment news website and newsletter Film News Briefs for close to five years, before merging it with SSN Insider in the spring of 2013, where he continues to contribute as Senior Editor.