The Arrow Player streaming service launches in the UK

The Arrow Player, as it is known, was launched in the US and Canada on October 1, 2020, but was finally made available to UK films fans on February 1, 2021.

The Arrow Player aims to be the home for moviegoers with a more alternative taste. If you’re unfamiliar with Arrow Films, their team are a leading independent film distributor who started working way back in 1991. 

They primarily work in world cinema, cult, arthouse, horror and classic films, as well as in the film restoration business. The Arrow Player will have plenty from these genres, but won’t be exclusively geared towards them. Arrow will also be trying to debut brand-new releases on the Arrow Player every month, too.

This month, there’s a season of films from Lars von Trier, including his latest feature, The House That Jack Built, and the headline exclusive is Adam Stovall’s A Ghost Waits. They’ll also be expanding beyond the borders to include international films like Cinema Paradiso, and TV series Gomorrah and The Bridge. 

The most unique feature of the Arrow Player is the promise of special features alongside films. This includes restored bonus features and newly-created extras to accompany “Digital Deluxe” editions of certain titles, as well as documentaries, video essays and interviews under the Arrow Stories banner. Digital Deluxe editions can be purchased separately, but you can access all the content if you're an Arrow Player subscriber.

Arrow's specially curated collections of films were previously only available in the UK via the Arrow Video Amazon Prime channel in the UK. When asked if this was just the same service, Arrow told one person on Twitter that the selection available on the Arrow Player will be ‘everything on the Prime channel and more’. The below trailer gives you a great idea of the range of content you can expect: 

 Arrow Films also posted a demo of their UI to Twitter, which you can see below: 

A subscription to the Arrow Player will cost UK customers £4.99 a month or £49.99 annually. There’s also a free trial available, which lasts for 30 days. If you sign up soon, you can get 50% off your first three months’ subscription (reducing the monthly fee to just £2.49 a month) using the discount code ‘ARROWUKLAUNCH’.

US and Canadian viewers need not be jealous of this introductory offer, though. The @ARROW_Player account specifically noted that the ‘ARROWUKLAUNCH’ discount will work for new and existing customers overseas too, so they could benefit from a reduced subscription.

The Arrow Player is available through your web browser at Arrow-player.com, on iOS and Android devices, Roku, Amazon FireTV, Android TV, Apple TV and Chromecast. They also said they hope their app will be available on Now TV and said they have plans for console apps currently in the pipeline.