Looney Tunes and other classic cartoons get a streaming service
Thuffering thuccotash!
Your favorite Saturday morning cartoons are going digital. Turner and Warner Bros. are teaming up for a new standalone video subscription service called Boomerang. It'll offer over 5,000 titles from the Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes and MGM animation libraries when it launches this spring.
Boomerang launched in 2000 as a digital TV channel, but this is the first time it's offering classic franchises like Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, The Jetsons and The Flintstones on a streaming platform. It will also stream exclusive new episodes of Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, along with brand-new original series like a Wizard of Oz spinoff and a remake of the 1968 show Wacky Races.
Both Turner and Warner Bros. are owned by Time Warner, which has a firm foothold in the direct-to-consumer streaming market. It's a co-owner of Hulu and it partnered with the Criterion Collection to launch Filmstruck, a Netflix-style service for classic movies.
Boomerang will be available ad-free on the web, iOS and Android devices for $4.99 per month or $39.99 annually. Turner and Warner Bros. plan to expand to several more platforms after launch, including Amazon, Roku and Apple TV.