With TV service providers now officially mandated to offer both pick and pay and skinny basic packages, Hollywood Suite president and co-founder David Kines (pictured) says the company is ready and optimistic for the new television environment.

Hollywood Suite launched five years ago with four commercial-free movie channels, and since then has experienced 55 consecutive months of subscriber and revenue growth, Kines told Playback Daily. While Hollywood Suite won’t reveal specific subscriber numbers, they are in the “hundreds of thousands,” said a company spokesperson.

Part of that growth, said Kines, is due to the company’s recent rebrand, which Hollywood Suite put in motion last year to get ahead of the pick and pay. It rebranded its specialty channels (Warner Films, The MGM Channel, Hollywood Storm and Hollywood Festival) into four decade-specific channels (’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s), with the Hollywood Suite branding consistent across each channel.

“We were looking at [a rebrand] as a way of improving the recognizability and attractiveness of the channels and the definition of the channels,” he said. “We think it’s helped us a lot and will after December 1 in the true pick and pay.”

Now that consumers have the ability to add specific channels to their cable packages, recognizability and uniqueness of offering are essential to communicate to potential subscribers.

Julie Kumaria, VP of marketing and content distribution, told Playback Daily the Hollywood Suite channels offer films that defined each of the four decades and much of the company’s communication aims to invoke nostalgia.

While the Hollywood Suite audience does skew older – “we say 35-plus,” said Kumaria – and the company continues to invest in traditional advertising, social is playing a large role in its marketing efforts.

One way the company is looking to engage with film fans – and potential new subscribers – is through a newly launched film blog. “We’ve started to move forward and look for ways that we can connect further on some longer-form reflection of these films,” said Kumaria. “The blog…is really becoming an important voice for our brand to delve into these films and talk about them on a larger scale with some unique perspective.” Timed with the launch of pick-and-pay, Hollywood Suite also announced a five-week free preview of its four channels.

Ultimately, Kines said one reason for the company’s success so far is Hollywood Suite offers content curation in a world of abundant choice. “We’ve distilled a collection of 1,100, 1,200 films at any given time and said, ‘These are really good films,'” he said. “There are thousands and thousands of films out there. We think the value and why people like our channels is we’ve reduced the number of choices for them. There is a paralysis of choice when you’re faced with too much.”

Kines added that while “99%” of Hollywood Suite’s programming are classic films, the channels will also once again air the Independent Spirit Awards and will this year offer the BAFTAs. “We try to run critically acclaimed award-winning films, so it’s a natural partnership to run prestigious award shows that recognize films,” he said.

Looking ahead to the next five years, Kines said the company is interested in providing a wider variety of films to its subscribers and plans to become more involved in commissioning original content. “[We] are excited about the opportunities that will bring.”