Lionsgate Posts Q4 Loss

Fourth quarter revenues at Lionsgate fell to $913.7 million, with the independent studio posting a loss for the period of $155 million.

For the full fiscal year, revenues fell from $4.1 billion to $3.7 billion, with a net loss of $284.2 million, as compared with a year-ago profit of $473.4 million.

“We’ve completed a very active and productive fiscal 2019 in which we set in place all the elements for strong growth and continued value creation in the year ahead,” said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. “We’ve refilled our film and television content pipelines, refocused on extracting maximum value from our franchise properties and are capitalizing on an extraordinary opportunity to continue Starz’s global expansion and cement its stature as one of the leading international pure-play subscription video-on-demand services.”

In Q4, media networks revenues rose to $362 million, while motion picture revenues fell to $357.6 million and television production fell to $272.8 million.

For the fiscal year, media networks revenues were also up, by 4 percent to $1.46 billion, led by OTT subscriber growth, and segment profits increased by 2 percent to $436 million. Starz—which is reportedly being eyed for acquisition by CBS Corporation—ended the quarter with 24.7 million total U.S. subscribers.

Television production revenues fell by 11 percent to $921 million and profits were down 41 percent to $66 million.

Motion picture revenues were down 20 percent to $1.46 billion due to the studio having a smaller slate, and profits fell by 28 percent to $129 million.