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- The late Zappos visionary Tony Hsieh and studio XTR have launched Documentary Plus, a new streaming service.
- It’s free to watch, comes with ads, and is designed to appeal to non-fiction fans.
- The platform’s launch comes two months after Hsieh died after sustaining injuries in a house fire.
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Documentary Plus, a new streaming service from studio XTR and in partnership with the late Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, just launched.
XTR CEO Bryan Mooser told Gizmodo in an interview that the service is designed to feel “highly curated and personal, like the [Criterion Channel] for documentaries.”
Documentaries are available in a wide range of topic areas, including politics, comedy, pop culture, science, and much more.
It’s completely free to watch, but it comes with ads. The company told Gizmodo that it could be open to adding an ad-free version if enough demand is drummed up.
Documentary Plus did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The fact that the streaming service is free sets it apart from its competitors, but the platform is still emerging in a crowded market. Dominated by Netflix, the streaming world boasts a dizzying amount of offerings for viewers, driven into their homes due to the pandemic, to choose from.
However, Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Discovery Plus, HBO Max, and others come with a monthly subscription fee, and many of them do offer documentary collections.
Hsieh, who died in November, was the visionary behind online retailer Zappos and spent 20 years with the company before stepping down in August 2020. He was known for his out-of-the-box workplace policies.
Hsieh died after sustaining injuries in a house fire at a Connecticut home. New details emerged on Tuesday regarding what could have been the cause of the fire.