Starz’s Chris Albrecht

When he was at HBO, Chris Albrecht was known for encouraging writers to follow their visions and create worlds inhabited by multifaceted characters that were neither entirely good nor evil, but unquestionably human in their frailties and strengths. Albrecht greenlit such groundbreaking shows as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Band of Brothers, changing the direction of scripted television forever.

Albrecht joined Starz in 2010 when the premium pay-TV landscape had two deep-pocketed players, HBO and Showtime. He was open to partnering with international content producers and continued to support creators and showrunners with unique and often unheard voices. In the process, Starz began catering to segments of the audience that had previously been underserved, such as African Americans and Latinx, first with original series like Power and then Vida. Outlander, Ash vs Evil Dead and The Girlfriend Experience have also garnered loyal viewership.

Albrecht was one of the early pioneers of the straight-to-series model, preferring it to the more expensive pilot process, and continues to use it today. As the traditional TV landscape is in a phase of transition, dealing with disruption caused by streaming services and their endless, bingeable, all-you-can-watch menus of films and series, Albrecht has overseen the launch of Starz’s app and is taking advantage of the data drawn from subscribers’ habits and preferences to better serve them.

Starz has also benefited from its merger with Lionsgate. The indie studio acquired Starz at the end of 2016, and Lionsgate’s library, financial resources and relationships are helping Starz launch internationally and attract more talent.

Albrecht, Starz’s president and CEO, talks to World Screen about the relationship with Lionsgate, working with showrunners, taking chances on new talent, growing the app and international expansion.

WS: We have been reading a lot about upcoming streaming services that are looking at offering more and more variety and volume. Is that the only way to succeed in this crowded environment?
ALBRECHT: I don’t think so. What is for sure is that in this click-in and click-out world of digital direct-to-consumer platforms, the idea that all it takes is one show, and one show makes a difference, is not true anymore. What you need is a strategy of who your target customer base is. You need an integrated portfolio of programs that supports that strategy and is an extension of that strategy. Then you need great marketing and a great consumer experience. If you have that combination, then the amount of programs, while it’s always nice to have more, isn’t the only thing that makes it better.

WS: Starz has been catering to underserved audiences. Is that a strategy that evolved over time or was it a conscious goal of yours?
ALBRECHT: Both; it evolved and has become a conscious goal because we now have the capability of going more directly to customers, whether it’s through Amazon in the U.S., U.K. or Germany, or other territories that we are going to announce with additional partners. The opportunity to be in a configuration and a price point that offer customers who previously might not have been able to get Starz here in the U.S., because they had to buy a big cable package, and certainly outside the U.S., where Starz wasn’t available, [leads to the questions,] Who are the likely customers who are going to get this service? What should I be programming for them and what should I be charging? So, the underserved audience is one we think is an available and hungry pool of likely customers. If they were super-served, then they wouldn’t be likely customers, because they would already be satisfied.

WS: You’ve had the Starz app for about two years. What have you learned about your viewers that can help inform what you offer them?
ALBRECHT: The main headline is that we’re actually able to learn from them because they are our customers as opposed to a cable company’s customers or a satellite company’s customers, or even in the case of Amazon, Amazon’s customers. Our direct-to-consumer app is allowing us to have a one-to-one relationship with the customer. And the data that we capture and the communication that we have with them are immediate—we have communication with them, we get data. The communication with them is sometimes simply, here is this program, what are they going to watch? And we’re like kids in a candy store. It’s such a terrific opportunity to be able to think about our business and make decisions based on actual information and feedback, as opposed to subjective decisions or information we are getting through third parties. It’s informing almost everything that we do now. One of the things that we have learned is that the people who are using the app tend to skew more female and younger, and that is not a surprise, but it’s great to see. And the idea that we can now fall in behind that information and try and strengthen both of those gives us an available audience with hopefully younger viewers and long-term subscribers.

WS: Because you have two priorities: you have to attract the subscribers, and then you have to keep them, right?
ALBRECHT: Exactly, that is the same as in any subscription business. It’s a model that a lot of other companies are trying to create and emulate, but that is exactly the task. You have to get them, and you have to keep them. And that is not the same scenario with every consumer. Therefore, this information that we’re getting from people is allowing us to understand the different aspects of keeping them. Getting them is one task, but the actual best investment that we can make is getting better at keeping them. And certainly, if for some reason they leave, getting really good at winning them back.

WS: You have a reputation for championing creativity and working with creators and showrunners. Taking any shows as examples, tell us how you help showrunners remain true to their vision and still craft a show that is good for your brand and your subscribers.
ALBRECHT: I love working with people who are first-time showrunners because they have an idea they are incredibly passionate about. They are looking to us to be a real support. They usually have a very fresh voice because it hasn’t had a chance to be uncorked and run through multiple seasons of something that has already popped out of their head. We’ve worked with Courtney Kemp on Power and Tanya Saracho on Vida. We’re working on another show with a young African American playwright, Katori Hall. These are people who are ripe for making fantastic television. Power has become a worldwide brand. Vida is unlike anything that is on television. When you are willing to support those voices and take chances with people who are ready but don’t have the track record yet, then I think more often than not you can get something special. And even if it doesn’t succeed with the audience, you’ve at least succeeded in saying, here is what we stand for as a creative company and it does something great for the brand and attracts more people with more unique voices.

WS: When I speak to a lot of people in the business, they talk about the direct-to-series model. Weren’t you one of the first people who put that into action, and is that a model you still use today?
ALBRECHT: Yes, we were one of the first. When we started doing originals here, we were the new kid on the block. We certainly didn’t have the financial resources that some of the more established players had. So, this was our way of saying, we can offer you something other people aren’t. Now the direct-to-series model is almost the standard in the business. We don’t do pilots. We’ve played a little bit with some presentations, where we shoot a day or two to look at a film style or a different actor or actress. But no, we are not doing pilots; we will either read a script or commission a script and then go right to a writers’ room and then make a decision to go to series or not.

WS: Starz has also branched out into unscripted fare. What motivated that decision, and what type of unscripted shows are you looking for?
ALBRECHT: When premium pay television first started to have serious entries into the original programming space, they didn’t reinvent the wheel. One-hour dramas were a staple of television; premium platforms just offered a different canvas. Half-hour comedies were a staple of television; premium platforms just offered a different canvas. When I look at unscripted, there are docuseries and reality; those are the two ends of the spectrum in the unscripted world. Docuseries are an interesting staple because you can do things more honestly—they are not news; they’re more filmmaker-driven. Broadcast networks’ docuseries tend to come from a news division, whereas on a premium platform they tend to come more from filmmakers, so they are operating from a different point of view and different impetus to do the project. The one thing that hasn’t happened that we are interested in is the success that ad-supported channels have had with reality shows. What’s the premium version of a reality show? I don’t know. We’re investigating those things. For me, it’s just saying, with 400 or 500 or 600 scripted shows out there, maybe we should be looking at staples of television that we haven’t explored a lot before and see if we can find unique, interesting voices in those genres as well.

WS: Speaking of scripted, is it getting more difficult to secure the talent you need? Or, given your reputation and Starz’s, are you able to get the actors, showrunners and directors you need?
ALBRECHT: Yes, it is very competitive; it is sometimes more challenging. In the end, we always get to a place that we feel good about. It’s just a little more work and you have to be a little more open-minded. One area that is most competitive is finding a director because, while an actor can come in for three or four days, a director comes in for a couple of weeks of prep, then shooting and editing. You have to book directors early. If you are looking for stars, there is a lot of competition there. Just as I like the new showrunner idea, I think it’s great for us to discover new talent on screen as well. We try to cast a wide net and look for somebody who we think can bring a role to life as opposed to marquee value alone.

WS: How is Starz benefiting from Lionsgate?
ALBRECHT: In many ways, and first of all with our international expansion. Because we haven’t licensed our brand name and we don’t have big linear channels outside the U.S., we are able to go to market in a lot of different ways in a lot of different territories, and we have a lot of plans. But the Lionsgate library, along with the Starz originals, is allowing us to put together a content offering very quickly. So instead of going out to negotiate with other third parties for content, I would say one of the big benefits is having access to the Lionsgate library as we grow internationally. Certainly, with Lionsgate TV and the fact that they are meeting with creative people all the time, we now have an in-house studio thinking about servicing Starz—that’s always great. Any help that we can get to find terrific projects is welcome in this competitive environment. Being part of a bigger company, having that library and an in-house studio have all been very beneficial.

WS: Speaking of the library, I know that originals get a lot of attention, but films are still very important to Starz, aren’t they?
ALBRECHT: Absolutely. And, as we look at the Starz app, it’s not just having films, it’s having a lot of them because what you really want to do is offer people the choice to explore the app. If you are going on a plane, [the app allows you to] download some originals. If you are going in the car, you can download a movie, let the kids sit in the back seat and watch it. We have a great array of family films as well. Yes, theatricals are very important, and back to the Lionsgate relationship, the Lionsgate/Summit films will probably be coming to Starz at some point. That will also be nice, so we can have conversations about what kinds of films work for our business at the very beginning of the development process, and that’s not an opportunity that a lot of companies have. Even the big companies like Warner Bros. and Viacom don’t have those kinds of conversations about what will work on the channels. But as we are looking to expand Starz, we can look at the movie division of Lionsgate as a partner to help make Starz stronger.

WS: What can you tell us about the plans to roll out Starz internationally?
ALBRECHT: I can only tell you what you’ve read. We’re in the U.K. and Germany and other territories: Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and German-speaking Switzerland. We haven’t announced a partner yet, but we’ve announced that we are going to be launching in Italy, Spain and France. We’ve announced 15 countries in the first three years. I wouldn’t be surprised if that accelerates and we see a greater number of rollouts in a shorter period of time. We’re very popular right now. There are a lot of people talking about partnering with us. There are really large companies wanting to expand their businesses around the world and Starz is a potential partner or add-on to what they are doing, as we are for Amazon in the U.K. and Germany. Those opportunities will grow in number and grow in the timeframe that people want to launch.

There is a lot of energy. We’re very excited about our international expansion. We think we are unique. We have a great product. We have the financial wherewithal, we have the creative wherewithal and we have the library. We have the business experience. We’re partner-friendly. We have a window of opportunity. While other people are working to get to market, we are already in the market.