Struum Streaming Venture Launching in Spring

Struum, a new steaming venture developed by former Disney and Discovery executives, is set to launch this spring, with an aim to create an easier way for people to discover programming across the premium SVOD landscape

Struum is backed by a multi-million dollar investment from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner through his Tornante Company. It is the brainchild of founders Lauren DeVillier, former head of product for Discovery Ventures; Eugene Liew, former VP of product and technology at Disney+; Paul Pastor, former executive VP of strategy, revenue and operations at Discovery Networks; and Thomas Wadsworth, former lead advanced product development for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Struum, focused on maximizing the opportunity of the mass niche and specialty premium SVOD market, is currently building a streaming technology platform, collaborating with such partners as Firstlight Media. Firstlight Media is also an investor in the new business. The Struum platform is built on Microsoft Azure’s cloud-native, microservice architecture, best-in-class cloud security technology. It is designed to help streaming services optimize the discoverability of their programs and services while providing consumers with a simple way to find programming and services. With one subscription, consumers can use Struum’s credit-based system to discover and consume content from its range of partner services.

Struum has already struck deals with nearly three dozen services, amassing more than 20,000 TV series, movies and shorts.

CEO Lauren DeVillier said: “Our mission is simple: to create the easiest way for people to find more of the content they love by providing value through a single subscription. As the OTT space continues to expand, there is an incredible amount of amazing video content options for TV and movie streaming fans, but it can be overwhelming and expensive for the average viewer to delve into these options outside the biggest players in the market. With our platform, we will help viewers uncover new content and platforms, but also provide all SVOD services with the opportunity to be more easily, and frequently discovered by fans.”

Struum CBO Paul Pastor added: “With the top-notch content and technology partners, and a team of industry experts we are able to tap into, including Michael Eisner and The Tornante Company, our goal is to create a best-in-class aggregation solution for consumers.”

Michael Eisner, founder of The Tornante Company, said: “With so much proliferation in the niche and specialty streaming landscape, there is a clear need for a resource that helps them seamlessly discover and consume content from these services. This is truly a first-class team that is leveraging their wide breadth of experiences and relationships to create a solution unmatched by anything else currently available that will benefit both viewers and streaming services.”