The Criterion Collection announced today that its new streaming service will launch on April 8, 2019, in the U.S. and Canada. The Criterion Channel service will be available on desktop, Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS, and Android devices. Charter Subscribers who sign up before the Channel's April 8 launch will enjoy reduced pricing for the life of their subscriptions along with other benefits, including a prelaunch Movie of the Week every Wednesday until launch.

A movie lover's dream highlighting new thematic programming every night of the week, the Criterion Channel will feature a constantly refreshed selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent movies, plus continuous access to Criterion's own streaming library of more than 1,000 important classic and contemporary films from around the world.

The service will include a new Sunday Spotlight, a movie marathon focusing on a different director, star, genre, or theme each week. Criterion Channel exclusive programming will return, including Adventures in Moviegoing, the guest programmer series that has featured Bill Hader, Barry Jenkins, Guillermo del Toro, and Mira Nair; Tuesday's Short + Feature; the Friday Double Feature; Meet the Filmmakers; Art-House America; and Observations on Film Art, the Channel's 15-minute-a-month film school.

The Criterion Collection's library of supplemental features, archival interviews, and original documentaries will give viewers a chance to go deep into the films and filmmakers they love, offering context that no existing service can match.

Charter Subscribers who visit CriterionChannel.com and sign up before launch will enjoy an extended 30-day free trial (starting April 8), reduced pricing for the life of their subscriptions ($9.99 per month or $89.99 annually for as long as you stay active, instead of $10.99 per month or $99.99 annually for subscribers who sign up after April 8), and other benefits including free access to a Charter Subscribers-only movie of the week between sign-up and launch.

The first Movie of the Week is hot off the presses: the complete, newly released Criterion edition of Mikey and Nicky, with a new restoration supervised by Elaine May, along with all of its supplemental features - available exclusively to Charter Subscribers, this week only. In Philadelphia, a small-time bookie who stole mob money is in hiding and he begs a childhood friend to help him evade the hit-man who's on his trail.