Discovery’s Hendricks gets into 4K
January 15, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Discovery founder John Hendricks is backing ‘CuriosityStream’ (“on-demand videos for the incurably curious”), a subscription only video stream of specially commissioned non-fiction programming. Hendricks is pricing access to the content at between $2.99 and $9.99 a month depending on quality ranging from SD to 4K/Ultra-HD.
High quality streaming will be achieved via Netflix and Amazon’s access points, and will be free of advertising.
‘CuriosityStream’ will launch on March 18th with about 800 video titles available, some sourced from the BBC and Japan’s pubcaster NHK.
Several of the options will be brand-new commissions, and be available in 4K/Ultra-HDTV. For example, Hendricks says CuriosityStream has several documentary series and short-form programming in 4K resolution format, including “Big Picture Earth,” a 20-part series to be produced by David Conover, the filmmaker behind “Sunrise Earth” (one of the popular programmes on Discovery’ HD Theatre network).
“The advent of online-streaming technology utilized by Netflix and other successful video-streaming services has created a video transmission infrastructure that finally allows viewers to watch what they want to watch, when they want to watch it,” said Hendricks in a statement.