Gunpowder & Sky, the studio founded by Floris Bauer and former MTV head Van Toffler is looking to expand its roster of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels by starting channels from scratch or by acquiring them.

The company jumped into FAST five years ago. It says its current channels, Dust and Alter, which focus on sci-fi and horror, are flourishing, increasing viewership and profitability by 100% last year, with a similar performance expected this year. 

Gunpowder & Sky is investing in its channels with deals to acquire the rights to 30 more TV series and movies, which will enable them to refresh their programming line ups.

New acquisitions include iconic titles Train to Busan; Creep; Hounds of Love; Summer of ‘84; The Masters of Horror series (with episodes directed by John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Joe Dante  and John Landis), Fear Itself, Elvira’s Movie Macabre, Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest; Weird or What? with William Shatner, and Encounter: UFO.

The channels will air marathons of franchises including  Phantasm, Grave Encounters, Waxwork and Wishmaster.

“We know how to program to a targeted audience,” Toffler told Broadcasting+Cable. “Through Dust and Alter, we’ve acquired a bunch of equity over time with distributors like Roku and Sling. They know if we were to launch something, it would be premium and have high engagement.”

Bauer said the company is in active discussions with channels it could acquire. “We’ve identified a few key categories where we would love a channel,” Bauer said.

Gunpowder & Sky would want to acquire a channel, rather than start one from scratch because “we’re in a hurry and launching a new channel and getting it on a bunch of platforms takes time,” Bauer said.

Bauer said the FAST market is growing quickly, “There’s an opportunity to take smaller channels and really apply our expertise in branding, programming, distribution and monetization and create a lot of value. The initial acquisition cost is worth the investment.”

A year ago, programming was more difficult to acquire because media companies were hoarding content to stream on their own subscription services.

Now, “everybody is open to third-party licensing and it wouldn't surprise me even if people like Netflix at some point would open their gate,” Bauer said.

The studios are making more creative windows for content that they’ve already streamed on their own platforms, added Toffler. Those windows allow the companies to continue to monetize content.

“There’s only a handful of titles that really drive new subscribers and retention,” Toffler said. “I think there’s going to be a bifurcated strategy of having some key titles and series exclusively” while others are licensed to third parties.

“They’re going to move the needle for us a lot,” Bauer noted. “We can program them next to the things we know [our viewers] like because we’re catering to a very specific audience.”

In addition to acquired series and movies, Alter and Dust features short films from upcoming filmmakers as part of their programming mix.

“These channels and brands provide really robust outlets for young creatives and filmmakers and it provides us access in key categories, like sci-fi and horror to find and discover and work with young filmmakers, said Toffler.

Gunpowder & Sky’s studio works with those young filmmakers to adapt their work into feature-length films and TV series, he said. “That fills the other part of our pipeline, and so it works on multiple levels for us.”

For Toffler, the current stage of the FAST channel business is reminiscent of the early days of cable.

“It is quite analogous to the explosive growth of basic cable. We thought it would never end,” Toffler said. Digital technology now enables programmers to connect with consumers in a very niche way. “No surprise, based on my history at MTV Networks, we have chosen a very handcrafted premium approach that has garnered much higher engagement than a broader approach.”

Content production studio Gunpowder & Sky has launched a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel based on its horror-themed Alter service.

The studio’s Alter FAST service will initially launch on distribution outlets Samsung TV Plus, STIRR and Redbox, with more deals pending, according to the company. The Alter brand currently has more than 6 million subscribers across social media services Facebook and YouTube.  

The Alter FAST launch follows the studio’s FAST launch of sci-fi channel Dust, which is currently in front of 100 million homes, according to Gunpowder & Sky. 

“Alter is committed to bringing viewers the best quality horror content in the world, from the freshest voices in the genre,“ Alter Senior Manager of Acquisitions Sophie Carroll said in a statement. “We are excited for an Alter FAST channel to bring more attention to our extensive catalog of originals, as well as highly-curated films and series. It’s a channel for horror fans, by horror fans.” 

Gunpowder & Sky was founded in 2016 by former MTV exec Van Toffler and Floris Bauer, in partnership with The Chernin Group and AT&T.

Studio Gunpowder & Sky’s Dust science fiction label said it is developing Moreau, a TV series based on H.G. Wells’ classic novel The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Zack Stentz, who worked on X-Men: First Class, Thor, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has been signed to write the series.

Moreau focuses on world-renowned scientist Dr. Jessica Moreau, whose pioneering work in genetic engineering catches the eye of a billionaire willing to stop at nothing to reach the next step of human evolution.

“Zack took a time-honored classic and brought it into the 21st century,” said Eric Bromberg, senior VP at Gunpowder & Sky. “Together, we’re creating a story that’s scarily befitting of today’s world, filled with seemingly limitless, and oftentimes alarming, scientific advancements. Frankenstein and Doudna have nothing on Jessica Moreau.”

Stentz is repped by Circle of Confusion, a leading management and production company that partnered with Gunpowder & Sky in April to develop and produce feature films and series that are sourced from writers, directors and producers who have had their work released on Dust or Alter, Gunpowder & Sky’s sci-fi and horror brands, respectively.

"The double helix wasn’t even a twinkle in Watson & Crick’s eye when H.G. Wells first wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau, but his 1896 novel proved astonishingly prescient about how unlocking the secrets of DNA would open the door to humanity playing God with the natural world in strange and frightening ways,” said Stentz.

“And now, in the shadow of the CRISPR revolution, it felt like the perfect time to revisit Moreau and bring it into our own 21st Century world of transgenic animals, designer babies and other scientific advances Wells never could have dreamed of, Stentz said. “I'm delighted to be working with Eric, Geoff & the Gunpowder & Sky team to welcome a whole new generation to the good doctor's terrifying island.”

Add “Dust” to a growing group of multiscreen services that is focused on short-form sci-fi fare from both emerging and established filmmakers.

Dust, a service from Gunpowder & Sky, is launching today across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and the web.

The offering, billed as a “destination for binge watchable sci-fi featuring short films, series and behind-the-scenes content,” is launching with an exclusive debut of a thriller called Where The Shadows Fall that’s directed by Kate Phillips and written by Will Welles.  DUST has also begun production of Product Wars, its first original.

Dust, which has tapped the help of producer Steve Tzirlin (late of Lucasfilm and Fox Filmed Entertainment), said it is starting off with a curated selection of more than 100 sci-fi films. It’s also producing factual programming around sci-fi and technology topics.

Dust is just the latest multiplatform OTT focused on the genre. Last month, a service called Recursor launched with a focus on short-form, “hard” science fiction fare developed by independent filmmakers and content creators.

“Sci-fi shorts, as well as the overall sci-fi culture, is reminiscent of the renaissance in music videos at the dawn of MTV in the 80s,” Van Toffler, CEO of Gunpowder & Sky, said in a statement. “Dust is yet another great avenue for Gunpowder & Sky to partner with emerging as well as established filmmakers paving the way in the sci-fi genre.”