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Cinedigm has partnered with Wizard World to create a multi-platform online network aimed at Comic Con fans offering sci-fi, horror, fantasy, action, adventure, gamer, anime, animation and comedy content.
“We think it’s a perfect, complementary partnership,” said Cinedigm chairman/CEO Chris McGurk, “We love the fact that it’s going to be a branded channel with Wizard World.”
John Macaluso, CEO of Wizard World, which puts on Comic Con adds, “We can get 25, 30, 50, 100,000 people through our doors and they enjoy being around similar interest people. Now we’re going to give them the opportunity that even if they can’t come to a show, or miss a show, they’re going to be able to get a lot of the show on this channel.”
McGurk added, “It brings Comic Con into their homes.”
Wizard World is not the same company that puts on the POPULAR Comic-Con events in San Diego and New York.
PHOTOS: Comic-Com Instagram Moments
The yet-to-be-named channel will offer content for free. However, a premium subscription option will also be available, which will contain exclusive access to events, panels, talent and fans at Comic Con.
Content will include films, TV episodes and web programs, aimed at 18-44 year-old consumers, mostly drawn from the existing Cinedigm movie and TV show library. The network will also feature original programming made at Comic Con. Fans can expect around 150-200 hours of new footage this year.
Cinedigm has a library of over 33,000 films and TV episodes, 650 digital content partnerships and an acquisitions team sourcing new films, series and other original programming. They have a 2,000-episode anime library, which McGurk said fits the interests of the Comic-Con audience.
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“Our philosophy here is we have an opportunity because we can control so much content to be a narrow-cast version, so to speak, of a Hulu or an Amazon or a Netflix,” McGurk said. “Where instead of providing every film and TV title known to man, what we can do is provide a high concentration of content that a very specific audience wants to see, and that’s sort of the crux of this.”
STORY: Comic-Cons of the Future will be Bigger, Maybe Not at Comic-Con
The programming will be made available through mobile phones, tablets, gaming consoles, connected TVs and set top boxes. “We want the channel to be ubiquitous,” McGurk said
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