Revry is Bringing Queer to Streaming

In Denver, the seasons have changed with an abruptness which personally I was unprepared for. The cold has come out of hiding ,and we are in the hibernation months. Already tracking two snow storms in October, we are currently amid inches of the sparkling beauty of the winter wonderland, which means there is no better time to get my TV and movie streaming on. Luckily, Revry is prepared to deliver the newest, freshest, and largest selection of queer content so we can bundle up and settle in for a long, shivery season.

The idea of Revry, the LGBTQ streaming subscription service, came from the severe lack of diverse, queer content on other platforms. When CEO and co-founder Damian Pelliccione sat with some friends in the living room to watch something on the newest model of Apple TV, they noticed there were no apps available for LGBTQ folks. This got the wheels turning for Pelliccione, and he got together with three other individuals who could help launch what is now the largest global queer streaming service.

“We started the business with a hope and a dream to create a platform that would truly reflect the identities of the LGBT communities through media,” said Pelliccione. “There weren’t too many competitors in the space, or they were really focused on gay, cisgender-identifying men, and there was not enough on lesbian, bi, trans, pan or intersex, Two-Spirit, or non binary people.”

Through finding a need in the marketplace and developing a group of diverse co-founders, which included Pelliccione, Alia J. Daniels, Chris Rodriguez, and LaShawn McGhee, the four of them made an unrivaled partnership with their vision to curate a variety of media.

Revry Launches

Launched in 2016 at San Francisco Pride, the platform quickly became an accessible and transcendent form of delivering nuanced, LGBTQ content not only in the U.S. but throughout the world. While the majority of Revry viewers are in North America, it is available in more than 50 million homes worldwide and on average has 350,000 monthly active users.

Revry is not only a streaming service of curated TV and full-length LGBTQ films, the company also hosts a site for film shorts, queer musicians, and podcasters as well as create original content for Revry exclusives. With a purchase plans as low as $4.99 per month, this mecca of queer entertainment is undoubtedly worth it.

Accessible for most with a wifi connection, Revry is available on a variety of different TV platforms such as Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Android, Amazon Fire, as well as mobile versions and desktop. While network cable television is still a top leading provider in curated content, Pelliccione believes that may be quickly coming to an end.

“Where we’re moving next, and where I think the industry is moving, is that we’re seeing cable TV make a resurgence. Not cable like the old school what you plug into the back of your TV set, but internet provided cable, or a cable in the cloud,” he said.

This is why Revry has now joined forces with Pluto TV, which now allows them to curate a free and nonstop stream of queer content.

“With cord cutting, and cable cutting, and lowering the barrier to entry and expense to actually be able to have a broadcast channel, it really kind of put us into a new world. We’re really proud and happy to announce our newest live broadcast channel with TiVo, and we were announced with 25 other channel partners on October 1.”

A Hinge in the Plan

 Amid the success, however, there are always some barriers that arise and must be worked through.

“One of the main challenges is finding truly diverse queer stories. So much content that creators have made have focused on either coming-out stories or even focused towards the gay, white, male experience,” said Pelliccione. “We’re looking to authentically represent the whole spectrum of the queer experience, where people’s sexual or gender identities are more nuanced and perhaps not even the central aspect to their experience.”  

This is why the whole team at Revry seeks out stories and music by POC women and trans people, as they know now more than ever these narratives are important for the visibility of those communities.  

“We want Revry to be a home where all queer people from around the world can see and share their stories,” he said. “One of the most important goals of our business is that we can provide representation to parts of the globe that probably need it more than we do even in our own backyard.”

For Pelliccione, it’s messages that Revry receives from queer folks around the world who are getting access to affirming LGBTQ content that truly makes the work more important than simply providing entertainment to the masses. He recalled specifically a message on LinkedIn from a young, queer man from Saudi Arabia who, through Revry, was able to watch his first gay film.

“That message really resonated, and then it showed that we’re reaching an audience who needs it the most. That was the first of many; we’ve had people from Russia, parts of Africa, all over the globe, who have written to thank us for seeing a trans music artist, or a lesbian comedy, or different types of media that reflects their identity,” he said.

Changing the Rhetoric

Although so many people are thankful for the work that Pelliccione and the team over at Revry does, it doesn’t come without the harsh reality of LGBTQ discrimination and prejudices from many  who prefer to silence these stories.

“We constantly get criticized; we’ve had hate mail and speech sent to us whenever we have certain social posts; there are definitely people who are compelled to voice their opinions to us directly or on these posts,” he said. “It kind of shocked us the first few times that we received it, and now we’re desensitized to it, because it’s just part of the process.”

Things are changing, though, and he sites events like India recently striking down Section 377 and decriminalizing what it means to be LGBTQ, as well as Taiwan getting equal marriage rights.

“We are seeing this social change, and I think having platforms like Revry cab have a hand in impacting the social change. Very much like a work that GLAAD does, even the Trevor Project, there is major social impact and change coming just from representation,” said Pelliccione.

While the landscape of LGBTQ folks continues to evolve and the future of streaming, media, and content changes, one thing is certain: diverse narrative of LGBTQ folks with in-depth stories and angles will continue to illuminate the uniqueness of the community.