Dear Criterion and Janus Films,



As customers who have spent many years and many dollars supporting your company we were thrilled to hear about the new Criterion Channel streaming service and delighted at the idea of having the Criterion catalogue readily available. We'd been disappointed in the death of FilmStruck and were ready to start this next chapter.



Sadly, with this came a frustration that was held over from the FilmStruck days: no apps for the Criterion Channel seems to be planned for Playstation Network or X-Box Live upon its launch on April 8, 2019.



We understand that the Criterion Channel is (and FilmStruck was) a niche service aiming towards cinephiles. However, as nearly every major streaming service is available to users through their gaming consoles we find it to be strange oversight that the Criterion Channel is not. We feel that by doing this, Criterion is ignoring a large market of potential customers that are cinephiles who own gaming consoles and would happily subscribe if the app was available to them through this platform. This simple truth is not everybody owns a Roku or Amazon Fire TV Stick and many find such devices redundant in light of already owning a gaming console. If you know your customer base you also know that a lot of us when forced to choose between watching a film on tablet, phone or computer screen as opposed to a tv would almost rather not watch them at all (after all we all know how David Lynch would feel about us watching Eraserhead on our phones).



To be successful a streaming platform needs to be profitable and to be profitable its best to reach as many customers as possible. We want this new platform to succeed and be a part of that success. Nobody needs to tell you that Criterion Collection fans are passionate and devoted and we love your brand. Many of us were introduced to world and arthouse cinema because of Criterion and still hold that passion to this day largely because of Criterion's continued efforts. We're merely asking you to consider returning the favor to your loyal customers with gaming consoles and making this platform available on the service's launch date so that we can help you succeed.



Respectfully,

Your Fans