Fullscreen, a streaming service owned by AT&T wants to take a slice of the cake of the, now huge, video streaming market. In a world owned by YouTube and Netflix, Fullscreen will have a tough job of achieving that, but it has some tricks up its sleeve that should tip the scales on their side, at least in theory. Similar to Verizon’s Go90 streaming service, Fullscreen is not free (with ads), instead, AT&T decided to make the service subscription based. For $5 per month, Fullscreen offers users more than 800 hours of streaming-ready content that contains a mix between some proper Hollywood hits, popular TV shows, and some YouTube Originals-like short internet shows.
An interesting package that has some potential, but is there enough quality content to justify the $5 monthly subscription? Well, unlike YouTube (or if we talk about subscription based services, YouTube Red) Fullscreen offers content that isn’t mostly user generated. Instead, they want to offer users proper, scripted TV shows that aren’t on the same level of Netflix or Amazon original series, but can offer some quality video content that may give enough reasons for users to subscribe.
Some of the shows include a reboot of a TV show from 1970’s “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl” starring two YouTube stars (Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart) which shows the lives of two crime fighters and wannabe superheroes from the title; Another (potentially) interesting show is called “Filthy Preppy Teen$” and (as you probably guessed by now) about teen life, but in a satirical way, making fun out of popular teen shows that were extremely popular just a couple of years before. There is potential, especially when you find out that screenwriter of “American Psycho”, Bret Easton Ellis, will be writing and directing short drama show (of eight episode) called “The Deleted” that talks about kids who got into a cult and now want to get out of it; it could be interesting, but nothing can be said about the show right now.
It is worth noting that Fullscreen’s main potential user base are Millenials, so it’s not surprising that some legendary shows from the late 90’s/early 00’s are also present on the service; shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek” were extremely popular in time when millennials grew up and could definitely be of interest to this demography.
Fullscreen isn’t for everyone. It is a project that borrows from YouTube and Netflix, but also offers some original ideas and has big plans. Back in 2011, when Fullscreen got founded, its founder, George Strompolos said that “Fullscreen will not be for everyone” and that “In fact, we’re proud of the fact that Fullscreen won’t be for everyone.”
Fullscreen is made for YouTube generation; more specifically, for a part of YouTube generation that don’t think about YouTube as an alternative to TV, but who instead regard YouTube as a primary video content source. Its app is made with the new generation in mind, it looks like MTV for the 2010’s, and could be very successful if the team behind it gets everything right. If that happens, Fullscreen could have a bright future.
