A NEW streaming platform dedicated to showcasing Scottish stories in a “curated home” in a bid to rival the likes of Netflix and Disney+ is set to launch.
The new independent streaming platform Scotflix is set to launch in September, at the Scottish Screenwriters Festival, where it will host a home for filmmakers, TV shows, musicians, comedians and podcasts.
The pay-on-demand platform aims to launch with at least 20 projects and to grow the sustainability of Scotland’s creative industry by returning the power of who gets to decide which stories are told back into the hands of creatives.
“It is the best way that I could think of to help the industry sustain itself,” Maureen Hascoet, founder of Scotflix and director of Firewalker Pictures, told The National.
“Scotland at the moment is very much a servicing industry, and it is not a production industry, so it doesn't allow us to retain the money, the resources that you get from owning it.”
The idea of creating Scotland’s own streaming platform was first floated by Hascoet three years ago.
Since then, Hascoet has enlisted the help of HiWay’s Zach Rothwell, David Orman and Adam Greenwood, who have created the platform to be a one-stop shop for audiences to see their favourite creatives work.
Features on Scotflix will include audiences being able to access any behind-the-scenes content creators may upload, along with curated titles they may be interested in.
One of the biggest aspects of Scotflix for Hascoet was allowing creators to retain the intellectual property of their work, which is typically handed over to streaming giants like Netflix or Amazon Prime, with little say in the contracts.
“Through this technology that HiWay has come up with, which they call direct to fan, it allows content producers to both retain their IP and showcase it on the platform in a way that's a win-win for everybody,” Hascoet said.
The filmmaker added that “we know that Scotland sells” and argued that creating a platform for creatives will only help to sustain an industry which can be difficult for people to make a living in.
“Fragmentation is our enemy. There's lots of great people doing great things all in their pockets of people, which with the lack of infrastructure that we have, doesn't create anything sustainable,” Hascoet said.
“So through bringing everyone together under one umbrella, we can brand and sell basically to a massive audience while they manage to retain their IP, I think it's a massive win.”
Hascoet pointed to the success of recent shows like the detective series Dept. Q and Shetland along with the world-famous Outlander series as examples of large audiences for Scottish stories.
She added: “I've heard Scottish people don't watch Scottish stories, and time and time again I've found that's not true.
“Local people will always gravitate towards local stories and support local stories.
“I think what's going to happen is that the audience is going to start seeing things that they haven't necessarily seen before because of what you were saying of the BBC and STV deciding what gets sold.
“The other thing is that I think we can go again within that curation system.”
One of the main selling points of Scotflix from Hascoet is that it will be able to respond in real time to “what the audience actually wants to see”.
This is due to the platform feeding back to creators in real time key data metrics like minutes watched, which are typically withheld from streaming giants.
Hascoet also argues that filmmakers and other creatives will be a “lot freer” to create what they like without having to go down the traditional route of having to pitch to streaming executives, which are typically “risk-averse” when it comes to new ideas.
Another feature that Scotflix has integrated into the service is having location tags in the description of films and TV series, which will show people where certain scenes were shot.
Hascoet said that she aims to “harness the whole ecosystem” as she would like to see Scotflix partner with the likes of Visit Scotland or local authorities to help promote Scotland on screen and attract international audiences to the country.
“Like why wouldn't we include a tool for people that can actually let them know where the show was filmed and let them organise a trip with Visit Scotland or, send them back to the Visit Scotland website.
“It would be a real miss.
“Outlander is bringing millions to the Scottish tourism industry every year.
“If we can keep making each other stronger and stronger, why not?
Scotflix will launch at the Scottish Screenwriters Festival in September and will be online and eventually in app stores.
Anyone interested in showcasing their work on Scotflix can do so by contacting Maureen Hascoet at maureen@firewalkerpictures.co.uk.
