Rory Strunk and Ken Hess at O’Maine Studios in Portland, with their StreamState streaming platform. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald 

More than two years ago, Rory Strunk and his team at O’Maine Studios in Portland began working on ways to create “the Netflix of Maine.”

Their idea was to build a streaming service that featured movies, shows and live events either filmed in Maine, by Maine producers or about Maine. After research and discussions with content producers and big streaming services like Roku, they decided there would probably be a demand for such a thing, from Mainers and from people around the country who love and visit the state.

The result is StreamState, a streaming platform that O’Maine studios will launch in February. The website, which is up now, lists Maine-made TV shows, documentary and feature films, workshops, tourism videos and live webcams of natural areas around the state.

All content will be free for February, which started with live coverage from the U.S. National Toboggan Championships in Camden. After February, it’ll cost $6.99 a month to access all content, but live activity webcams and a small selection of programs will continue to be free.

There are about 70 titles on the platform now, but Strunk hopes to have 250 or more by next year. Once StreamState is fully launched, there will be monthly and yearly fees to access for the majority of the content, but those prices are not yet listed on the site. Under Gov. Mills’ proposed budget, streaming services would be subject to the state’s 5.5% sales tax, although the idea has been rejected three previous times by the Legislature.

“The streaming world has become very chaotic and convoluted, and we feel like we’re filling a niche with this place-based content,” said Strunk, CEO of O’Maine Studios.

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There are places to go online for Maine content now. The Maine Public Film Series, on Maine Public Television, airs films about Maine and by Mainers and then makes them available online. The Portland Media Center has thousands of programs online and on-demand, made by volunteers or staff for the non-profit public access TV organization.

As a Maine-based studio, Strunk and his partners know a lot of Maine content producers and have a good handle on what kinds of films, TV shows and event-based programming are being produced in Maine. Several of those producers have welcomed the idea of StreamState and agreed to put their work on the platform. Some have current agreements with other streaming services but are eager to have their work on StreamState when those agreements expire.

Devon Platte, a Portland-based filmmaker has put his 2019 documentary series “Puckland,” about the creation of the Maine Mariners minor league hockey team, on StreamState. It had originally aired on NBCSports.com and on local NBC affiliate TV stations in Portland and Bangor.

Platte has worked as a producer on several network TV reality shows over the years, including “The Amazing Race” on CBS and “North Woods Law” on Animal Planet. He likes the concept of StreamState and thinks it will provide an opportunity for more Maine-made productions to get seen by an audience, which in turn could help efforts to get more films and TV shows made here.

“I think it’s a win-win. It gets producers another distribution opportunity and it’s a great way to show what’s being done in Maine,” Platte said.

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Content providers will be paid a portion of StreamState’s revenue from subscriber fees, based on the percentage of people watching their programming, Strunk said. While the amount of money would likely be small, especially at first, Platte said he and other independent producers are glad to monetize their work even slightly, when they can. Many of the films or programs that will be on the platform to start are independent or smaller-budget productions. StreamState will also air some coverage of live events in Maine.

Some of the other films that will be available on StreamState include: “Islander” (2006), about a tragic accident at sea and its impact on an island fishing village; “Child of Grace” (2016), about a child who has spent most of her life traveling in an RV with her father, and one day realizes she may have been kidnapped; “Bounce” (2016), a documentary about the ball and how playing ball games defines cultures. The first two star Maine native Thomas Hildreth and the latter was made by Maine-based cinematographer and photographer David McClain.

Ryan Cook, a Waterville native and producer on the film “Lost on a Mountain in Maine,” says he’s excited about the part StreamState can play in helping local filmmakers.

“Lost on a Mountain in Maine” opened in theaters in the fall and is now on several major streaming and cable on-demand platforms, and likely won’t be on StreamState when it launches. The movie is the true story of Donn Fendler, a 12-year-old boy who survived nine days alone on Mount Katahdin in 1939. When Cook was trying to find investors and collaborators to make the film, he says he could have used the exposure a platform like StreamState could offer.

He made a 2011 documentary about Fendler, in hopes it would help gain support for the feature film. But he had no way to get it into wide distribution.

“If StreamState had existed then, it would have been a huge benefit to me, as I was trying to get exposure and find people who might be interested in the project,” said Cook. “Anybody creating content that’s relevant and interesting to Mainers will now have a platform that caters to that. “

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