Rotten Tomatoes has announced today that they have begun the launch of their new streaming channel, The Rotten Tomatoes Channel. Currently housed on The Roku Channel, they have also detailed availability coming to Peacock, XUMO TV, and other soon-to-be-announced streaming services. The channel has been described by the Rotten Tomatoes team as “Everything a movie and TV fan could possibly want.”
The Rotten Tomatoes Channel will feature behind-the-scenes interviews about a variety of movie and TV moments, trailers for new and upcoming releases, and recommendations on both ‘fresh’ and ‘rotten’ things to watch from Rotten Tomatoes themselves. Since the new channel is ‘linear’, the programming will be pre-selected, like a traditional TV station, and is scheduled to run 24/7. 10 originally produced shows will accompany the launch, along with a variety of pre-produced videos from the website that will make up their complete programming schedule.
Popular video series from the website, such as their Versus series, will be featured on the channel. Some of the new content includes Countdown, a program that will reveal top 10 lists of various movies and TV shows of different genres and time periods based on their Tomatometer scores or even based on the “expertise” of the Rotten Tomatoes team. Another new program, Trailers Reloaded, will feature trailers from historic blockbuster releases such as those from the Harry Potter movies or Marvel’s trailers for the MCU as well as vintage trailers such as those for Hitchcock classics.
The channel will be free to use, with no subscription to an additional service necessary.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Rotten Tomatoes uses this new extended channel to round out their platform for everything TV, movies, and entertainment. They have recently made changes to their ‘Top Critics’ program to include more diversity of opinions and this, alongside the announcement of their new streaming service, seem to be steps towards creating something of an entertainment network for the website. Obviously, competing with rival IMDb’s IMDb TV streaming channel is probably a major concern for RT as well, although it seems Rotten Tomatoes streaming endeavors will focus more on content in the vain of E! as opposed to airing actual movies or television programs for the time being.
Will you be using The Rotten Tomatoes Channel to help decide your next TV binge or movie night selection? Let us know in the comments!