As movie buffs signed petitions to get AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit to reverse course on a decision to shutter subscription streaming site FilmStruck, one of the anchor tenants of that platform, The Criterion Collection, has announced plans to launch a new platform next year “picking up where the old service left off.”

But as it seeks to build it own streaming home for the Criterion Channel following the shuttering of its exclusive SVOD perch on November 29, the New York-based Criterion Collection also admits that it’s “starting from scratch.” That probably means it needs to build its own technology backbone and re-recruit an all new subscriber base, all at a time when the niche-targeted SVOD business has become hugely competitive.

Related: Classic Film Streaming Service Folded by AT&T Makes Comeback

Criterion, which has restored and curated hundreds of classic and acclaimed contemporary films, won’t discuss the strategy for its launch, which it says is happening next spring; at least, not beyond what it already said in a blog post on November 16.

It did say the platform will include all the familiar elements featured on FilmStruck.

Director spotlights and actor retrospectives will be included, featuring “major Hollywood and international classic and hard-to-find discoveries from around the world.” The guest programmer series Adventures in Moviegoing will be included, as will regular series Art-House America, Split Screen, Meet the Filmmakers and Ten Minutes or Less.

“The new service will be wholly owned and controlled by the Criterion Collection,” the post said. “We hope to be available in U.S. and Canada at launch, rolling out additional territories over time.”

Will WarnerMedia provide Criterion with a subscriber list to market its new service to? Company reps didn’t respond to this question, but the answer doesn’t appear to be yes.

The company seems to be aggressively driving potential subscribers to a sign-up page early, issuing this call to arms in its blog post: “We will be starting from scratch, with no subscribers, so we will need all the help we can get. The most valuable thing you can do to help now is go to Criterion.com/channel and sign up to be a Charter Subscriber, then tell your friends to sign up too. We need everyone who was a FilmStruck subscriber or who’s been tweeting and signing petitions and writing letters to come out and to sign up for the new service. We can’t do it without you!”

At least in terms of business model, Criterion seems to have things figured out. It’ll offer its services for $10.99 a month, or $100 a year with a lump sum payment. Those who sign up early will get the service for $9.99 a month, or $89.99 a year. The operator is offering a free 30-day trial.

Will it be the exclusive streaming home of the Criterion Collection? Maybe not. While it culls niche properties like FilmStruck and Drama Fever from its herd, WarnerMedia is considering a roll-up of FilmStruck into a broader-targeted streaming platform it has in the works—a platform that would house Criterion Collection offerings.

Meanwhile, there’s always Hulu Plus, which used to be Criterion Collection’s SVOD home prior to the 2016 launch of FilmStruck. 

Turner’s first-ever digital streaming service, FilmStruck, will debut Oct. 19, offering more than 900 classic, independent and foreign films to consumers on a subscription video-on-demand basis. A major component of the service will be exclusive access to the Criterion Collection studio library, which will launch on the service sometime in November.

UPDATE, 10-18-2016:Turner Delays Launch of FilmStruck

FilmStruck and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) general manager Jennifer Dorian recently spoke with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the appeal of the service as well as FilmStruck’s potential subscriber base. Here’s an edited excerpt of their conversation.

NTV:What was the thinking behind creating the FilmStruck brand?

Jennifer Dorian: We have researched that a lot of fans are having a hard time with critically acclaimed, hard-to-find films and they are looking for them in multiple places, whether its streaming, on cable or on DVD and Blu-ray collections. We felt like this was the promise of the Internet: to put everything together in one place and really curate to a niche audience.

The economics work for streaming to niche audiences, so we were thinking that art house, independent cinema is a niche that’s underserved and we could be the home for it.

NTV:Why not launch the service in the linear cable space, similar to TCM?

JD: TCM is doing well and thriving in its environment on linear cable and with its TV everywhere authenticated app, so let that service do its thing. This is a new way for us to experiment and maybe take some risks that I wouldn’t want to take with a gem of a treasured brand such as TCM.

NTV:Will most of the content for FilmStruck come from the TCM library?

JD: We’ve worked with 30 distributors — mostly independent distributors and some major studios, like Miramax and Sony Pictures Classics — and we’ve cultivated a new library that is different than TCM. This is a departure from classic Hollywood. There are major film industries in Japan, Sweden, France, Italy, Mexico and Bollywood, so we’re going to have some fun with different storytellers from around the world. The first release of the service [includes] 23 movies from 23 countries and 15 languages. It’s a very different library than TCM.

NTV:How important is the Criterion Collection library acquisition for the service?

JD: It’s really huge that we are the exclusive streaming home for the Criterion library because they are a very respected and acclaimed name, they are a great brand and they have supplemental materials that are incredible for over 1,200 titles.

NTV:What specific audience demo do you expect to sign up for FilmStruck?

JD: Our research and our gut are both matching — we think it’s younger, 25-to-44-year-olds who are already streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. They also all have pay TV cable as well; it’s not about cord-cutting, but rather loving entertainment so much that that’s where you spend a lot of your money. We’re also going after art-house film lovers who are streamers, and presumably they are easy to target and find through digital advertising as well as through community events and gatherings.

NTV:What platforms will FilmStruck be available on?

JD: We will initially launch on the Web via desktop, iOS and mobile devices and Android mobile devices. We’ll be exclusive on Amazon Fire TV for 30 days and then in late November we’ll be added to Apple TV OS fourth-generation generation [player]. December through March [2017] we’ll be adding Chromecast, Roku and PlayStation 4.

NTV:What makes you so confident that people will want to purchase a subscription to watch classic and art-house films in an ultra-crowded digital content environment?

JD: I think that the big players in the U.S. have already taken over the role of being all things to everybody, which leaves room for the independent niche services that appeal to fandoms and hobbyists, and I think the film community and film culture is a great community that needs to be served.

It’s less about streaming movies and more about celebrating film culture and film as art. Yes, we’re streaming movies, but we’re also streaming thematic curation and supplements that make you have a deeper, more immersive experience.