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Some news that’s been floating around for a bit: Comic-Con HQ, the streaming video-on-demand channel focused on all thing Comic-Con lifestyle, will stream as its own channel no longer. The channel, which was launched as a partnership between San Diego Comic-Con and Lionsgate, will now operate as licensed content from Lionsgate, Variety first reported.   The content will still be available via Amazon Prime, TubiTV and Roku’s streaming service.

Comic-Con HQ was launched in 2016 and popular content included Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest, and two competing nerdlebrities-at-cons shows  Kings of Con with  Rob Benedict and Richard Speight, Jr,  and Con Man with Alan Tudyk, Nathan Fillion. (Oddly I’ve never watched either of these, but with winter comes bingeing.) There was also a show about comics shops in which I appeared in an episode, a pleasant afternoon spent with Nick Purpura at JHU.  The channel also showed panels from comic-cons past but it wasn’t enough in today’s competitive streaming world:

However, in recent months, Comic-Con HQ gradually scaled down its content plans. The channel stopped producing original content, and also didn’t add any of this year’s Comic-Con panels to its catalog. Instead, Comic-Con HQ increasingly relied on movies from Lionsgate’s catalog — something that didn’t really go over well with its audience, judging from recent reviewsof the channel on Amazon Channels.

You might recall that Wizard also launched its own failed streaming service, ConHQ, which was a significant drag on profits before it shut down. While clearly nerds like entertainemnt  for them not about them, they’re not the only niche SVOD channels to shut down in recent months. It’s a very competitive field. However, Variety notes, there are still more than 100 other niche services out there waiting for your $5 a month.

And as the above graphic chillingly reminds us, only 289 days until SDCC ’18!

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