The killing of FilmStruck shows that AT&T's defense of its Time Warner takeover was a lie
Shed a tear for Coleman Breland. As recently as April 26, the president of WarnerMedia's Turner Classic Movies was filmed at a Hollywood gala talking up Turner's FilmStruck service, which was bringing classic and independent films to home streaming boxes for a monthly fee.
"One of the reasons we have FilmStruck," Breland gushed, "is helping a new generation, a younger generation, fall in love with films. ... If you love film, you'll love FilmStruck."
On Oct. 26, however, Turner's new owner, AT&T Inc., made Breland's words moot by announcing that FilmStruck would be shut down at the end of this month. It had lived for barely two years, attracting a subscriber base of 100,000 cinephiles. That wasn't enough to make FilmStruck profitable, Turner executives say. And under AT&T, which closed its takeover of Time Warner in June, mass subscribership and profits are the ballgame.
Speaking as a soon-to-be-orphaned FilmStruck subscriber, I take
