Crackle (company)
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Culver City, California, United States |
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Area served
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North America Central America South America |
| Services | Digital streaming |
| Parent | Sony Pictures Entertainment |
| Website | www |
Crackle is an online distributor of original web shows, Hollywood movies, and TV shows. Founded in the early 2000s as Grouper, and rebranded in 2007, Crackle is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. The service is free with commercials on all supported platforms.
In August 2006, Sony purchased the online video site Grouper for $65 million. In July 2007, Sony announced that Grouper would be re-branded and re-purposed as Crackle, a multi-platform video-entertainment network and studio, featuring full-length movies and television shows from Sony’s library, and would produce original content made for the Internet. In late 2008, San Francisco based Crackle was moved to Sony’s Culver City base to be formally folded into the studio’s digital content operations.
In March 2011, Crackle became available for streaming across PS3, Roku boxes, Sony Blu-ray players and Bravia TVs. In April 2011, Crackle announced that they would release apps for iOS and Android systems in June of the same year. Crackle also partnered with Xbox Live, making its content available for Xbox 360. In June 2013, Crackle released an app for the BlackBerry 10 platform. In December 2013, Crackle made its content available for the Apple TV set-top box.
In January 2012, Crackle added Animax to its content, available to viewers in the US and Canada. Towards the end of 2013, the Animax branding was removed. In Australia, Crackle became the free-to-air home of popular soap opera Days of Our Lives after the television broadcaster Nine Network axed the series after 45 years.
On April 1, 2014, Sony Pictures Television ceased its Crackle operations in the UK and Australia almost four years after Crackle had expanded into the UK. Crackle UK had struggled to gain a large audience due to other competitors like LoveFilm and Netflix. Two days later, NBCUniversal Television & New Media Distribution struck a multi-year deal with Crackle to have more than 140 of NBCUni's feature films streamed. but Crackle shut down its UK service in April 2014 without prior notice.
On April 30, 2014, Crackle announced it would begin carrying Sports Jeopardy!, which as its name implies is a sports-themed version of the syndicated game show Jeopardy!, beginning that fall. Dan Patrick will host the series. Approximately one week after the cancellation of the theatrical release of The Interview, in the aftermath of the Sony hack, the New York Post reported that Sony would release the movie for free, on Crackle.
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