STARZ today announced that it has officially completed its separation from Lionsgate and returns to being a standalone public company with trading commencing today on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol STRZ.

STARZ successfully transitioned from linear to digital profitably and is well positioned to drive long-term success with approximately 70% of its revenue now fueled by a robust digital footprint. STARZ’s targeted content offering is complementary to any platform or service, making it the industry’s bundling partner of choice. As a result, it is poised to grow through capitalizing on new bundling, distribution and other partnership opportunities.

STARZ’s portfolio of strong programming includes some of the most popular series on television. Focused on its valuable and scalable core demos of women and underrepresented audiences, STARZ boasts five series that average nine to 12 million multiplatform viewers per episode. STARZ also has a proven track record of creating and expanding franchises with Outlander and Power, both which have remained culturally relevant for over a decade including several Power Universe spinoff series and the highly anticipated Outlander: Blood of My Blood prequel series.

The Company has a subscriber base of 20 million (as of December 31, 2024) in the U.S and Canada.

“Today marks an important milestone in our history as we unlock significant value as a standalone business and advance our position as the leading premium entertainment destination for women and underrepresented audiences,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, President and CEO of STARZ. “This separation comes at a pivotal time for the industry. Our strong balance sheet, compelling programming lineup and industry-leading tech stack will enable us to be nimble and capitalize on growth opportunities, while driving long-term success for our partners, audiences, employees and shareholders. We are thankful to Jon (Feltheimer) and the entire Lionsgate team for the past eight years of collaboration as well as for the ongoing partnership we’ll maintain, and I look forward to beginning this new chapter for STARZ.”

The separation was approved by over 99% of both Class A and B shareholders at an April 23 meeting. The former dual share structure will become a single class of stock as of today.

With the separation now official, Lions Gate Entertainment–which owns Lionsgate–now joins Sony as being one of the very few motion picture distributors that do not also own a streaming or OTT service. Despite acquiring STARZ in 2016, it wasn’t until 2022 that Lionsgate Films releases began airing on STARZ because of previous agreements with Epix and Hulu. The same goes for Summit Entertainment, which had an existing contract with HBO. As of now, STARZ has exclusive first-run film licensing agreements with both Lionsgate and Universal.

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