Resolving a closely tracked negotiation, Comcast and Starz said Monday they have entered into a long-term carriage deal, more than a week before the Dec. 31 expiration date for the previous contract. Along with the pay-TV agreement, a content deal was announced between Starz parent Lionsgate and Comcast’s NBCUniversal. The content pact will see programming from Lionsgate’s library go to NBCU’s forthcoming streaming service Peacock, with NBCU fare streaming on StarzPlay.
Officials within the DOJ’s antitrust division are looking into Comcast’s announcement last week that it will replace 17 Starz channels in its Xfinity TV package with movie channel Epix amid complaints, including by some U.S. senators, that the move is anticompetitive, sources say.
Lionsgate’s Starz has begun warning subscribers that its 17 channels could be dropped and replaced by Comcast as soon as Dec. 10. The simmering dispute has led to reports that Lionsgate is considering spinning off Starz, which it bought for $4.4 billion in 2016.
The studio is looking to unlock hidden value in the premium cable channel as it expands in the streaming space with popular shows like Power and Outlander.
Exclusives
Lionsgate has promoted Starz COO Jeffrey Hirsch to president and CEO of the premium network, inking a new long-term contract. He had been named chief operating officer in 2016 and has been running the network since the March exit of former Starz CEO Chris Albrecht.
CBS may have previously expressed interest in acquiring Lionsgate-owned Starz, but now that the Eye has merged with Viacom, it’s unlikely that the newly formed ViacomCBS would look to actively pursue the premium cabler in the near term.
AT&T and Lionsgate-owned Starz have reached a new multi-year carriage deal, avoiding a disruption of the premium network’s offerings on AT&T’s DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse cable platforms. The agreement encompasses Starz and Starz Encore linear and HD channels, on-demand and online services.
“We are running into the global arena faster than anybody,” Jeff Hirsch told an investors conference as he decided against commenting on CBS possibly eyeing the premium cable channel as an acquisition target for $5 billion.
Lionsgate’s chances of selling its Starz TV network to CBS for $5.5 billion just shrank — by about $2 billion. Investors in the film studio behind The Hunger Games made it abundantly clear this week that they don’t see CBS writing a $5 billion-plus check to Lionsgate to acquire Starz, the channel behind The Spanish Queen and other popular miniseries.
CBS Corp. has expressed interest in acquiring cable channel Starz from Lionsgate Entertainment, according to four people familiar with the situation. CBS has been looking at the acquisition as a possible complement to Viacom, which CBS also is considering purchasing, said three of the people.
Three years after the close of Lionsgate’s $4.4 billion acquisition of Starz, the companies have stepped up the integration of their television operations under Lionsgate Entertainment CEO Jon Feltheimer. Merging are the companies’ TV physical production and post-production units, legal and TV music departments as well as aspects of business affairs and TV finance related to production.
Starz CEO Chris Albrecht will depart next month after a decade at the company. Albrecht’s decision to step down comes two years after Starz’s acquisition by Lionsgate was completed amid the continued integration of the two companies. For the time being, Starz will move forward under COO Jeffrey Hirsch and the current leadership team, including President of Programming Carmi Zlotnik, working closely with Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer.
Altice USA has fired back at Starz over the cable network’s FCC request for emergency injunctive relief in the carriage standoff that is now in its fourth week. Starz has been dark on Altice USA systems since Jan. 1. Last week, Starz asked the FCC to order Starz-Encore channels back on Altice USA systems because the operator violated FCC rules regarding giving subscribers notice of a major programming change. Altice on Tuesday argued in its response to the FCC that Starz’ complaint “has no basis in fact, law or policy.”
As the Starz-Altice USA carriage dispute drags on, the Lionsgate-owned network has filed two separate petitions with the FCC that aim to force the cable company to restore it on New York-area Optimum systems.
While Starz remains dark on Altice USA’s Optimum cable systems, the premium cable network has reached a new multi-year carriage deal with Verizon FiOS, Optimum’s rival in the New York metro area.
Last-minute negotiations over carriage rights for Starz and Encore on the Altice USA cable systems failed, resulting in the channels going dark as of the new year.
Starz, the pay-cable service that is part of Lionsgate Entertainment, released a report suggesting AT&T might push customers to HBO over competitors like Starz. AT&T dismissed the claims. “This conclusion doesn’t square with the facts,” the telecommunications company said in a statement.
Starz said its app now works on select Samsung smart TVs, a move by the media company to further expand the reach of its direct-to-consumer programming. The news comes just a few months after Starz launched its app on Amazon Fire TV.
Apple isn’t done trying to sell you pay TV. Here’s the company’s latest proposal: It wants to sell consumers a premium TV bundle that combines HBO, Showtime and Starz. Apple already sells each of those channels individually. But it has approached the three networks about rolling them up into a single package, as conventional pay TV operators sometimes do.
With Sinclair Broadcast Group’s blackout of two ABC affiliates on Frontier Communications in Seattle and Portland reaching the one-month mark, Frontier has begun offering free access to premium channels HBO, Showtime and Starz to affected customers.
Starz Cief Operating Officer Jeffrey Hirsch has signed a renewed agreement that will keep him at the network until December 2020.
Starz moved a step closer to merging with Lionsgate as the premium network company’s shareholders voted overwhelmingly to support the agreement to sell itself to the studio for $4.4 billion cash and stock.
Starz says today that eight of its premium networks will be available to DirecTV Now customers when AT&T launches the $35 a month streaming service — expected later this month. Additional Starz channels as well as its full VOD catalog with current and past episodes of original series will be added later..
Starz Entertainment confirmed Thursday that it laid off about 50 workers due to a reorganization that began last spring. But the job cuts have nothing to do with the cable channel’s pending $4.4 billion merger with Lionsgate Entertainment. Instead, they stem from Starz rebranding the Encore channels into Starz Encore in April. The jobs affected were in creative departments.
