AT&T and Starz, announced today that the have signed a new multi-year content carriage agreement. The agreement secures rights for AT&T to offer all of STARZ and STARZ ENCORE premium linear and HD channels, On-Demand, HD On-Demand and online services to customers of AT&T’s DIRECTV, AT&T TV and U-verse video platforms.
STARZ has managed to get wide distribution across streaming services and aggregators. In addition to selling the channel directly, STARZ is available on Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV—and platforms like Apple TV Channels, Amazon Channels and the Roku Channel.
DTV STREAM | Fubo | Hulu | Philo | Sling TV | YouTube | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Get 50% Off | Sign Up | |||
$79.99 | $91.99 | $76.99 | $25 | $40 | $40 | $72.99 | ||
Starz | + $11 | + $10 | + $9 | + $9 | + $9 | + $9 | + $9 |
This is one deal that was able to be resolved without dispute. This summer, AT&T had carriage disputes with CBS and Nexstar which saw locals go dark. Earlier this year, AT&T removed then re-added Viacom Channels on DIRECTV NOW—and dropped NFL Network from the service.
STARZ has had an interesting summer themselves. In May, reports came out that CBS made an informal offer to buy the premium channel and subscription service for $5B. Starz reportedly declined the offer, in the the hopes to increase the valuation for the channel. The company had been previously acquired by Lionsgate in 2016 for $4.4 billion in cash and stock.