Cinedigm is continuing its acquisition spree, acquiring the horror streaming service Screambox, TheWrap can exclusively report.
Screambox will continue to be offered on an ad-free subscription basis — the service costs $4.99 a month or $35.88 for the full year — and Cinedigm will use its horror channel that it has in partnership with Bloody Disgusting, to help drive additional subscribers. Screambox will also be bundled with Cinedigm’s fandom streaming service, CONtv.
Larry Baird, longtime Screambox chief operating officer, will remain on board to oversee the transition.
Cinedigm will leverage its substantial horror and thriller content library, app technology and Matchpoint distribution platform to rapidly expand Screambox’s content offering. It will relaunch the service’s apps and dramatically expand distribution to Cinedigm’s 900 million-plus global connected device footprint. Cinedigm also plans to expand the distribution of Screambox to its base of third-party subscription channel partners, including Roku, Comcast, SlingTV and Dish Network.
Cinedigm expects Screambox to reach a subscriber amount in the “seven figures” within the first 36 months under its ownership.
Cinedigm plans to heavily draw from a pool of more than 4,000 relevant film titles in its library, including thousands of newly obtained classic, cult and foreign horror titles from streaming service The Film Detective, which the company acquired in December 2020. Cinedigm expects to more than double the available content on Screambox over the next 90 days.
“The acquisition of Screambox is another huge streaming opportunity for Cinedigm,” Chris McGurk, Cinedigm chairman, said. “Having just acquired Fandor, which the Wall Street Journal called ‘the Netflix of independent film,’ we see that same kind of potential for Screambox in the huge, underserved horror category where millions of enthusiasts around the world are looking for a widely distributed streaming channel with a huge volume of premium horror content. Dan March, Screambox founder, and his team did a fantastic job in laying the groundwork for all that, and we intend to deliver on his vision.”
“Despite more than 145,000 horror films listed in The Internet Movie Database, less than 5% of the genre is currently available for fans to enjoy in a subscription environment,” Erick Opeka, chief strategy officer of Cinedigm, added. “We plan to immediately expand that opportunity by building on top of the great foundation Screambox provides into a massive, global library of the world’s best classic, contemporary and foreign horror content — that will create a seven-figure subscriber opportunity in success.”
The acquisition is the latest for Cinedigm, which has recently been on a buying spree. Last month, the company acquired San Francisco-based global independent film subscription service Fandor.