Blackpills bolsters streaming offer

Fledgling French shortform producer Blackpills will add more than 50 originals to its fledgling streaming service later this year, joining shows from Luc Besson and Sharon Horgan.

Patrick Holzman

The app-based streamer from Blackpills, which recently agreed a production deal with Vice Media, will offer the English-language originals on its ad-free platform.

Each show has around 15 episodes of between 10 and 15 minutes long and will be available to binge on Blackpills, which was founded by Canal+ exec Patrick Holzman alongside Daniel Marhely, who started music app Deezer.

The company, based in Paris, LA and Tel Aviv, launched its mobile-focused service in the US, Canada and across Europe earlier this month and said shows with actors James Franco and Denise Richards were in the works.

Blackpills’ series already include Playground from Besson, which sees a teenage girl exploring her parents’ death, and Pillowtalk, which is being executive produced by Horgan and follows the life of a bachelor.

Elsewhere, All Wrong, from Chris Marquette and Brittany Furlan, follows the exploits of an unemployed man, while Junior is about a teenage girl who finds herself in a love triangle with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.

Blackpills is also offering assault drama Pineapple, which it acquired from US-based Adaptive Studios.

Mobile-first services have been growing in popularity over the past 18 months, with US telecoms giant Verizon revamping its Go90 offering and ordering a slew of new shows for the service.