Comic-Con International and Lionsgate team for new nerd-focused VOD service

WonderCon isn’t the only part of the CCI empire that’s going “Hollywood.” CCI has just signed a deal with Lionsgate for a new subscription video-on-demand service that will launch later this year.

Lionsgate—the studio known for The Hunger Games and the Divergent series among many others—and CCI—that’s Comic-Con International) the non-profit organization that runs the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon—will team to present material deemed to be of interest to the Comic-Con fanbase. And yes, the channel will have original content, as well as studio fare from Lionsgate and other studios—and historical footage from past Comic-Cons.

While a VOD service may seem a little out of character for CCI, it’s not really for those who’ve been watching closely. The new service will serve as an outgrowth of SDCC’s
Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI-IFF), which is held at Comic-Con every year with various films of fan related-interest. The new VOD service will make this a “365-day-a-year online event.”

As a studio, Lionsgate was an early adapter, exhibiting at Comic-Con to promote the low budget films that made its name long before every studio in town decided SDCC was the biggest marketing event of the year. This new CCI VOD will be the third streaming service they’ve announced: Lionsgate Entertainment World, a joint venture with the Chinese company Alibaba, recently launched; and this summer will see the debut of Tribeca Shortlist, a partnership with Tribeca Enterprises that presents firms for discerning film fans. In addition to blockbusters like The Hunger Games movies, Lionsgate has also beome a player in TV, producing and distributing shows like Mad Men and Orange is the New Black.

VOD has become the hot place to cater to niche audiences and experiment with content; exploiting the “nerdcore” audience has been on a lot of radars. “The fan base for the kind of films and television series showcased at Comic-Con has grown exponentially, and a subscription video-on-demand service is the ideal platform to capture the magic and excitement of the Comic-Con experience year-round as well as the perfect vehicle for Comic-Con fans to discover new content,” said Lionsgate President of Worldwide Television & Digital Distribution Jim Packer.

It’s also a way for CCI to branch out. The Comic-Con brand is now somewhere between the Super Bowl and the Puppy Bowl in terms of mega-awareness, and launching new ventures like this seem like a smart channel to expand it even further. According to CCI’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations David Glanzer, CCI and Lionsgate have been working on the deal for two years; it was Lionsgate’s knowledge of fan culture that sealed the deal to “deliver the unique magic of Comic-Con and the celebration of comics and popular art to our fans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and around the world.”

Frequent dealmaker Peter Levin (Nerdist, Deadline) was also involved. He’s now President of Interactive Ventures & Games at Lionsgate and expects to “expand and enrich the world of Comic-Con for existing fans and extend it to a whole new global audience with a channel distinguished by its imaginative curation, depth and diversity of content and fierce loyalty to the Comic-Con brand.”

Sign up at the above link to find out more about the launch of this new service. Maybe it will show those two dueling nerdlebrity convention shows we told you about the other week.WonderCon isn’t the only part of the CCI empire that’s going “Hollywood.” CCI has just signed a deal with Lionsgate for a new subscription video-on-demand service that will launch later this year.

Lionsgate—the studio known for The Hunger Games and the Divergent series among many others—and CCI—that’s Comic-Con International) the non-profit organization that runs the San Diego Comic-Con and WonderCon—will team to present material deemed to be of interest to the Comic-Con fanbase. And yes, the channel will have original content, as well as studio fare from Lionsgate and other studios—and historical footage from past Comic-Cons.