The Monster Channel Goes Mobile VOD
Steve Barton
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For several years now the online destination known as The Monster Channel had all sorts of neat things going on if you were smart enough to be paying attention. Now, industry staple Joe Sena and company are taking things to an exciting new level!
From the Press Release
Fourth Castle Micromedia, best known for the EMCE Toys and Cinefantastique brands, is partnering with UK-based ROK TV to migrate “The Monster Channel” from online to multi-platform digital VOD at midnight on Halloween.
The new venture converts the three-year old horror channel from an online-only linear channel to a subscription video-on-demand channel with almost 500 features, shorts and music videos, accessible via mobile, tablet and television set-top boxes. It will be one of several channels in a low-cost subscription package launched by UK-based ROK TV which will also feature hundreds of films in the drama/romance, western, comedy, war, sci-fi/fantasy, martial arts, music and animation genres.
Launched in 2010, The Monster Channel was the first 24/7 horror channel to feature built-in social activity before the Twitter boom, letting viewers interact with each other during programming. It featured classic and modern horror films, indies and skits, most of which were presented by a variety of colorful “horror host” personalities.
It is the third launch by Fourth Castle president Joe Sena, who built online horror channels for Universal Studios in the 1990s and Fangoria in the early 2000s, before there was an actual audience for streaming content.
“The Monster Channel will finally be able to bring our brand of classic and independent horror to platforms that are in active use,” said Sena. “With the resources of our partners at ROK, we will grow to become a destination where fans can find the content they can’t find anywhere else, and filmmakers have a distribution platform where their content can be viewed by a global audience…and actually get paid for it.”
“We’re delighted and excited to have partnered with Fourth Castle Micromedia for the multi-platform digital video-on-demand streaming of The Monster Channel using ROK TV technology” said James Kendrick, COO of ROK TV. “Fourth Castle share our vision of exactly how content, particularly highly engaging and popular content such as theirs, will be monetized and used by viewers and consumers, and we all look forward to a spectacular launch on Halloween.”
The launch will be a tiered rollout, available first on the iOS platform (iPhone/iPad) and online, with Android and ROKU apps following shortly thereafter. Plans to add a 24/7 channel with linear programming like the channel’s current incarnation are in the works as well. Subscriptions are $2.99 US (£2 in the UK) per month and will include all of ROK’s genre channels and platforms as they launch.
For more information check out The Monster Channel website, “like” them on The Monster Channel Facebook page and subscribe over on the ROK TV website!
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