STARZ Gains 100K Subscribers as Lionsgate Posts Stronger-Than-Expected Financial Results
Everywhere you look these days, it seems a streamer is losing subscribers. Disney+ and ESPN+ both posted customer losses this week for their most recent fiscal quarters, and last week it was Warner Bros. Discovery announcing that its streamers Max and discovery+ had shed users.
An unlikely hero has arrived to break that trend, in the form of Lionsgate’s streaming platform STARZ. The company reported adding 100,000 streaming customers on a pro-forma basis last quarter, amidst financial results that were stronger than expected. It’s the second quarter in a row STARZ has added users; the company brought on 700K subscribers in Q1.
Revenue from Lionsgate’s film and television library increased to a record $896 million for the previous 12 months, which helped the company beat analyst expectations for the quarter. Lionsgate used the earnings report to announce that it was exiting Latin America by the end of 2023, in order to focus operations on the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. Movie studio revenue increased 46% in the quarter, driven by strong performances of films like “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
“I’m pleased to report a strong financial quarter with another record library performance,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “We continued to execute our strategic agenda culminating in our signing a definitive agreement with Hasbro last week to acquire global entertainment platform eOne. The acquisition checks off all the boxes by adding thousands of titles to our library, growing our portfolio of brands, and strengthening our scripted and unscripted television business.”
The deal Feltheimer is referencing was announced last week, and will send the rights to Hasbro toy properties like “Transformers,” “GI Joe” and many more to Lionsgate for future TV and movie development.
The company’s financial outlook would be even stronger were it not for Hollywood actors and writers striking. According to Deadline, Lionsgate CFO James Barge said that the strike could end up costing as much as $30 million per quarter, though its full-year financial outlook was unaffected.
Some movement finally came on Lionsgate’s long deliberations regarding what to do with its movie studio and cable/streaming segments during the preceding quarter. The company filed paperwork with the SEC in July to create two new entities: a separate Lionsgate movie studio company, and a company for the linear cable channel Starz and its streaming companion. Such a move will make it far easier to sell one of the two companies, should Lionsgate wish.
STARZ
STARZ offers a subscription video streaming service that gives access to content on the STARZ channel without the need of a cable subscription. With your subscription, you’ll get access to 7,500+ films and episodes, including all of their current originals like “Outlander,” The Serpent Queen,” “BMF,” and “Power.”