Sling TV has expanded its free streaming channel line-up. Its latest addition is Fawesome, an AVOD that offers more than 10,000 movies across 25 genres.
Horror content includes the films “Ouija 4,” “Dawn of the Mummy” and “Altar,” Romcoms run the gamut from “Mood Indigo” to “Paris, je t’aime,” while classics, such as Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” are available for streaming.
“This is a turning point in the TV industry, where skinny bundles are expanding, and free ad-supported channels will quickly become part of any video content offering. Our goal is to make one of our most popular channels, Fawesome, available as an omniplatform offering accessible by our viewers wherever they want to watch,” said Vikrant Mathur, cofounder, Future Today, its parent company.
Fawesome is available on all major OTTs and streaming devices, including Roku, Fire TV, Xfinity, Apple TV, iOS and Android devices.
Future Today’s other streamers, such as Filmrise and HappyKids, recently formed new partnerships with Kidtagious, a children’s licensing company, and animation studio Millimages, both veterans of family entertainment. The 8-year-old HappyKids, which carries Lego, Mattel and Pokémon brands, adds 525 new episodes of popular shows with the alliance.
Future Today launched its first OTT channel in 2011 and now operates more than 700 content channels with over 60 million app installs. It claims a library of 200,000 film, television and digital content assets.
Recently, Sling TV added IFC Films Picks and Slightly Off by IFC to its lineup, after Rush by AMC, AMC Presents and Absolute Reality by WE tv joined the platform earlier in 2020.
Last month, Sling TV EVP and Group President Michael Schwimmer admitted there is something to be said for customers gravitating to free content. While it’s good to reserve some programming for monthly subscribers, offering free content can be beneficial, as well.
“We have learned that free TV is really popular. People are willing to watch ads, quite frankly, to not have to pay a subscription fee … Free TV is here to stay. We certainly believe in it. We have our own nascent offering, it’s certainly not at the scale of Pluto for example, but it’s not going anywhere,” Schwimmer stated.