STARZ Streaming Service Adds 4.3M Subscribers Last Quarter to Climb to 24.5M Globally
As TV and movie studio Lionsgate wrapped up the fourth quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, company executives reported on Thursday that the STARZ streaming service added 4.3 million subscribers from January through March. The total brings the service’s subscriber base up to 24.5 million worldwide combining STARZ, STARZPLAY International, and STARZPLAY Arabia. The sizeable increase marks a growth of 7.8M users year-over-year from when STARZ wrapped fiscal year 2021 with 16.7M subscribers.
Domestically, STARZ now boasts 11.5 million streaming subscribers; a jump of 500,000 users since the end of last quarter and a 1.5M increase year-over-year. Despite headwinds in the streaming space, Lionsgate executives have regularly touted their target of securing 50-60 million global subscribers by the end of 2025.
In the United States, STARZ saw a linear subscriber decline of 400,000 down to 9.5 million. However, that was obviously countered by the growth in streaming. With 11.3M total linear subscribers across all platforms, STARZ is reporting 35.8 million global users.
With hit shows like “Outlander,” “Shining Vale,” “Gaslit,” “Blindspotting,” the “Power” franchise, and more, STARZ is the streaming arm of premium cable channel Starz; so it is much more similar to SHOWTIME’s standalone streamer than it is to HBO Max which is a separate service that houses HBO’s cable content.
However, when Paramount reported its quarterly earnings earlier this month, the company did not breakout SHOWTIME’s subscriber totals, only saying that the studio’s combined streamers added 7.3 million subscribers to come in at 62.4M. Therefore, it is difficult to compare the reach of both streamers.
While Paramount+ was responsible for 6.8M of the new subscribers last quarter, the remaining 500,000 came from SHOWTIME, BET+, and Noggin. Therefore, it is probable that STARZ outpaced SHOWTIME in streaming subscriber growth last quarter.
HBO Max added 3 million global subscribers in the first three months of the calendar year to raise its total to 76.8M worldwide and Disney+ added 7.9M subs to hit 137.7M worldwide.
While comparing STARZ to most other premium streamers is not exactly apples to apples, there could be changes afoot that would impact the way that the service fits into the larger streaming world. Earlier this month, it was reported that the country’s largest smart TV operating system company Roku was actively bidding to secure a minority stake in STARZ.
Though not yet finalized, the move is seen as part of an aggressive strategy by Roku to move from being exclusively a software licensor and advertising platform to being more active in content creation and distribution as well. In early May, the company announced a plan to release 25 original shows or films this year, an announcement which came on the heels of the company’s streaming hub, the Roku Channel, landing an exclusive streaming deal with Lionsgate films.
By purchasing a portion of STARZ, Roku could help to promote STARZ to its 53.6 million active users while also cementing that STARZ-to-Roku Channel pipeline.
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.”