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JustWatch, which tackles streaming fragmentation, launches own streaming service
Since launching in 2015, JustWatch has helped people navigate the growing number of streaming services by providing a guide on where to find movies they want to stream. Now JustWatch has its own streaming service and wants people to subscribe.
Launched today, JustWatch TV offers some movies available for free with ads that aren’t free on any other streaming service, including Green Room (2015), Locke (2013), and Sing Sing (2023). Other free movies include Fiddlin’ (2018), Friday the 13th (1980), and Hotel Mumbai (2018). I could play movies available for free on JustWatch TV without creating an account.
The streaming service also sells a subscription for people who don’t want to watch JustWatch’s library with ads. It’s currently $4 per month or $50 for a lifetime subscription. The latter is only available for a “limited” time, a company spokesperson told Ars Technica. The rep was unable to confirm how long JustWatch will sell the lifetime subscription.
Upon my perusal, JustWatch TV’s library seems limited and somewhat dated. That’s not necessarily a bad idea. Howdy, a Roku-owned streaming service with a similarly lackluster library compared to other services that costs $3/month without ads, reportedly had 1 million subscribers six months into launch.
Without getting more specific, JustWatch SVP Quentin Carbonell told StreamTV Insider that the service has “a few hundred titles across” its different tiers. JustWatch TV has 30 content partners, including Paramount and New Regency, globally and plans to add more.
The JustWatch Group aims for the new streaming service to fuel its advertising business and called it a “logical addition” to the streaming guide.
“[JustWatchTV] will provide even deeper audience data and insights for JustWatch Media, the group’s campaign planning and buying service for film marketing campaigns across digital platforms like YouTube, Meta, and TikTok for studios, distributors, streamers, and media agencies,” the announcement said.
JustWatch Group’s advertising business already leverages first-party audience data from the JustWatch streaming guide for ads for studios, distributors, streaming services, and media. JustWatch Group says the streaming guide has 50 million customers.
“From the beginning, our vision was to create a single platform that directs fans to all of their entertainment options in one place,” David Croyé, founder and CEO of JustWatch Group, said in a statement. “JustWatch TV will help fill in the gaps and will make it easier for the massive JustWatch audience to discover and watch great movies and series, including those hard-to-find titles, right from the app itself.”
JustWatch TV aims to have 100 million monthly users “in the years to come,” Carbonell told StreamTV Insider.