By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Crackle video streaming service, known best for Jerry Seinfeld's motorized interview series with fellow comics, says it wants to be more like a traditional television network.
Starting next month, the Crackle website will run a constant video stream of programming on a set schedule, its executives said Tuesday. Currently, people can click on Crackle's programming options and stream them whenever they want, an option that will be preserved.
Network chief Eric Berger said that while many Crackle users connecting through smart TVs or video consoles like the freedom to click on what they want, they miss the "serendipity" of tuning in and being exposed to something new.
Crackle is ad-supported and its video streams are free to consumers, unlike other subscription streaming services like Netflix. The new linear channel gives advertisers a more traditional option if they are seeking it, and for the first time Tuesday Crackle held a TV network-like event to show off new programming plans to advertisers.
Also unlike some other streaming services, the Nielsen company will be able to provide details about how many people are watching their programming, Berger said.
The new service begins rolling out next month on Roku devices and on other platforms during the summer.
Seinfeld is beginning his sixth season of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee," and will feature Steve Harvey, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert and new "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah in upcoming episodes. He said the show recently went past 100 million views over its history.
"To me, it's really television," Seinfeld said. "It's television. Television means the transmission of video pictures. It's just a simple way to put a show out there without a lot of complexity."
Besides "Comedians," Crackle is continuing with another popular entry, a sports version of the game show "Jeopardy!"
In the next year, Crackle will also introduce its first scripted drama, "The Art of More," about the high-stakes world of auction houses and starring Dennis Quaid and Kate Bosworth. It will air its first animated series, "SuperMansion," featuring Bryan Cranston's voice, and stream a sequel to the movie "Joe Dirt" with David Spade.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More