British GQ - 09.2019

W

e all know that TV as we know it is

on the way out. No longer is it a

choice between giving your money

to Netflix or Amazon Prime (answer: always

Netflix). This autumn will see the big beasts

coming lumbering into view in ultra-HD, all

set to end the idea of “broadcast TV” for

good. There’s Disney, who will launch

Disney+, which promises to bring every

Disney title under one roof, from the Marvel

and Star Wars films to Pixar and the rest,

along with a whole host of original commis-

sioning (of which a new Star Wars and Marvel

series – starring Tom Hiddleston’s Loki – are

but two). And then of course there’s Apple,

who will launch Apple TV+

and with it a host of new

shows from the likes of JJ

Abrams, Steven Spielberg

and even Oprah Winfrey.

But what if your tastes are

more, well, particular? What

if you really want to binge-

watch some quality South

Korean drama? Or wall-

to-wall anime? It turns out,

there’s a streaming service

for that too (specifically: Viki

and Crunchyroll). But they

are far from the only ones.

As streaming services aim

more and more for the middle

of the middle ground, so

niche streaming services have

popped up to fill the stream-

ing margins. There’s Le Cinéma Club, a Netflix

for film snobs that keeps its audience away

from the idiot box by presenting exactly one

new release a week. There’s Fandor, the indie

film streamer for those who think Le Cinéma

Club isn’t niche and snobby enough. And

there’s the likes of Revry and Dekkoo, which

provides only LGBTQ content (in fact, the

latter consists of TV and movies solely about

gay men).

But while those merely curate, others – just

like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney and Apple

• are creators too. Shudder, for fans of horror,
  has originals such as Satan’s Slaves (tagline,
  “She comes back for the last child”; shudder
  rating, four skulls) and Deadwax (“a

mindbending neo-noir set in the obsessive

world of vinyl collecting”; also four skulls).

Many of these niche services, in fairness, are

simply bad, repackaging old content no one

else wants to (Shout Factory TV, for instance,

is where bad Eighties films go to die, including

Munchie, a Gremlins knockoff, and Cyberzone:

Droid Gunner, a Bladerunner knockoff).

But others are thriving by occupying niches

you didn’t suspect existed. Acorn TV special-

ises in middle-brow, Daily Mail-friendly UK

programming for a US audience. Shows such

as Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders and Line Of

Duty are brought across the pond for

Americans who like actors with accents and,

if possible, called Martin Clunes (along with

every series of Doc Martin you can also watch

Clunes as a detective in Manhunt and as

himself in Martin Clunes’ Islands Of America).

Manhunt and Islands Of America are both

Acorn TV Originals, providing more Clunes for

your buck than any other streaming service,

and it’s not the only one. Take your pick from

Queens Of Mystery (imagine The Golden Girls,

but set in Middle England, where they solve

crimes) or London Kills (featuring a detective

whose wife is missing: “a case he has been

unable to solve”). The latter shows how strange

the niche streaming ecosystem has become. As

Acorn TV Originals are created to be American

exclusives, nothing stops them from selling the

rights to a UK broadcaster. And so London Kills

• a UK show made by a US streaming service
  specialising in UK shows – also airs in the UK
  on BBC iPlayer with viewers none of the wiser.
  Sometimes, a show that’s popular on Acorn
  will be cancelled in the UK, only to be revived
  by Acorn, which refuses to let the patient die.
  Ever heard of Agatha Raisin, the Sky One
  comedy crime drama starring Ashley Jensen
  as a PR from the big city turned crime solver
  in a small village? Sky cancelled it, but Acorn
  was so appalled that last year it commissioned
  a new series, this time with feature-length epi-
  sodes (evidently the secret to making Agatha
  Raisin better was making it longer).
  And yet from Acorn TV
  mighty oaks can grow: in
  2015 it became the only niche
  streaming service to be nomi-
  nated for an Emmy when
  Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case was
  up for Best Television Movie.
  There are also streaming ser-
  vices that are niche in size,
  even if the companies behind
  them are anything but.
  Facebook Watch has seen
  Mark Zuckerberg dip the edge
  of exactly one toe in the
  streaming market. What is
  there to watch on Facebook
  Watch, you ask? Not a lot. The
  biggest success has been the
  Elizabeth Olsen-starring drama
  Sorry For Your Loss. The rest
  are reality shows that, in fairness, perfectly fit
  the Facebook brand: cynical mass-market
  flotsam such as prank show You Kiddin’ Me
  (the title of which helpfully doubles as your
  reaction to any Facebook news story).
  Into this world of on-demand ubiquity
  there is even a niche in streaming services
  that bring back, well, broadcast television.
  Pluto TV, which is free, includes a whole host
  of actual online-only channels, from Glory
  Kickboxing (“all-striking, all the time”) and
  The Pet Collective (“the funniest animal
  videos”) to channels that show “retro”
  everything (Retro Drama, Retro Movies,
  Retro Toons). It “brings back”, boasts the
  Pluto TV website, “the linear TV you love”.

The early players you know already, and the next big wave is about to break. But for habitués

of knockoff horror, Korean drama and Martin Clunes, the online bargain bin is open for business

Story by Stuart McGurk Illustration by Rob Dobi

Islands in the streams: the niche Netflix

rivals you never knew you never needed

Television

Streaming’s myriad tributaries take viewers wherever they want

09-19DropSpringsteen.indd 133 10/07/2019 16:08

SEPTEMBER 2019 GQ.CO.UK 129