Lionsgate has extended its multiyear film licensing deal with Starz to bring nearly 20 studio film titles to the streaming platform’s premium channels and services annually.
Upcoming releases headed to Starz include the third installment of Now You See Me, Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the Michael Jackson biopic and Ballerina. The licensing deal extension comes as Lionsgate continues to move towards completing a proposed separation of its studio operations from Starz, its pay TV and streaming business.
Under the terms of the extended deal, Starz will continue to have exclusive rights to Lionsgate’s theatrical films in the first pay television and SVOD windows. But that will now happen on an “accelerated basis,” Lionsgate said, closer to their initial theatrical release.
Starz will also continue to have an exclusive second window, while adding a third exclusive window. “Movies are a critical part of our premium offering, and we’re pleased to extend our agreement with an accelerated window,” Alison Hoffman, president of Starz Networks, said in a statement.
The formal separation of the studios business from Starz will produce two separately traded public companies. The first, LGEC, will be renamed Starz Entertainment Corp., and New Lionsgate will be called Lionsgate Studios Corp.
“This newly extended deal is an affirmation of the tremendous value of Lionsgate movies in the pay television ecosystem,” Lionsgate president of worldwide television distribution Jim Packer said in his own statement.
The long-running movie licensing agreement with Starz is also another example of Lionsgate’s cradle-to-grave strategy for product exploitation, where the studio squeezes profits from its movie and TV product on all available traditional and digital platforms, including Starz.
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