We’re certainly living in quite a different world than we were even eight years ago. The times are ending when folks attending a convention will be able to keep the experience completely to themselves. With today’s technology, taking that experience to someone in their living room is now very possible.

According to Slashfilm, Comic-Con International is less than a month away from releasing a subscription service wherein the user will have access to panels at Comic-Con. This service is called Comic-Con HQ.

But just how extensive is this? Will the user be able to check out full panels?

“That is the big question,” Seth Laderman, General Manager of Comic-Con HQ, said.

“The short answer is yes. We’re going to be working with every single studio, every single panel host to be able to take the content and put it on our platform. We’re not going to be live streaming anything because we really don’t want to take away that experience of people who are the first to see and be there for it, but we can put things up shortly after.” 

They still really seem to be in the planning stages, and it’s not clear right now if their footage of, say, Hall H (where all the big movie news is usually dropped) will be on this streaming service. Perhaps they’ll include the panel itself, but not he exclusive footage.

“That is one of the options as well and we’re going to be working with all the studios and the panel hosts to figure out what would be the best way to handle that. Because a lot of these studios have their marketing plans and how they want to control their assets. We’re really just here as a conduit to be able to help promote everyone, similar to what Comic-Con is, so whatever’s best for them will be good for us.”

Whether or not footage is shown, however, seems to be up to the studio mostly, and the plans they have in store for whatever property they’re pushing at Comic-Con.

“NBC gave us an exclusive clip for Emerald City that’s on our alpha version of our platform right now that nobody’s ever seen before. So there will be studios that are going to want to engage our audience and spread everything out through that but other ones that are going to want to keep it closer in their own platforms, and I think that’s perfectly fair.”

While Hall H certainly seems to be the big draw, Laderman pointed out that those aren’t the only panels fans would want to see.

“I still want to get cameras in the smallest rooms because they may not have the broadest audience out there but it’s still an important part of what Comic-Con is and I want to be able to allow everybody to see everything.”

In addition to streaming, the service would provide all kinds of original programming, as well as recordings of Comic-Con from decades prior.

“They’ve been recording content for 40 years now,” Laderman said. “We have tapes that are like Betamax from 30 years ago so we’re in the process of digitizing everything right now and seeing what the pieces of content [are] but the goal is really to be able to enjoy the history of Comic-Con and be able to provide that content for the audience.”

“There’s a lot more content from the ’90s and ’00s than there was in the ’80s and ’70s but we still have some great stuff and that’s what we want to be able to do, whether it’s historic panels or just the masquerade or anything that’s on the floor or around town.”

What do you think of the idea of streaming these panels, or the streaming service in general? Would this take away any enjoyment of actually attending the con, and does it ultimately de-value that experience? If you’re on board for panel-streaming, should the footage be included?

Let us know all your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Slashfilm