Comcast and Starz Entertainment Group Announce Groundbreaking Movie Deal
Largest Movie Video-On-Demand Agreement to Date
Long-term Starz and Encore Channels Agreement
PHILADELPHIA, and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the country's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, and Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG), the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States, today announced that they will offer more than 1,500 movies a year from SEG's extensive library to Comcast's ON DEMAND video-on-demand service. This is the single largest video-on-demand movie content agreement to date. The agreement also covers the launch of two new SEG premium movie channels on Comcast systems and provides for the extension of the affiliation agreement between the two companies into the next decade. Finally, the agreement provides Comcast more control over future programming costs while providing SEG greater predictability in its long-term revenue stream.
The comprehensive agreement paves the way for Comcast to bring Starz to more Comcast customers and expand Encore and its thematic channels to additional digital cable customers. In addition to access to these channels, the agreement covers broad video-on-demand rights. Comcast plans to offer digital cable customers who subscribe to Starz 325 top movie titles per month, and offer Encore customers 250 of these movie titles per month - all at no additional charge. Digital cable customers who would have paid $3-4 per movie to receive top movies now will each be able to receive up to $1,000 per month worth of value at no additional charge from Comcast.
Comcast will also make available for no additional charge 100 of the
250 Encore movies as part of a new digital cable package that will be the gateway to video-on-demand for those customers who have previously experienced traditional television content.-