Starz Digital Licenses Package to Urban Movie Channel

LOS ANGELES: The SVOD service Urban Movie Channel has picked up more than 40 hours of content from Starz Digital, including the stand-up comedy series Martin Lawrence Presents: First Amendment.

Also headed to RLJ Entertainment's subscription-based video streaming service are Phunny Business, featuring comedian Dave Chappelle and the late comedian and actor Bernie Mac; Lies and Illusions, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christian Slater; and the award-winning History of Jazz: Oxygen for the Ears documentary, featuring artists Esperanza Spalding, Thelonius Monk, Norah Jones and many more. The urban-themed content from Starz Digital is set to run on Urban Movie Channel over the summer.

“We are excited to have acquired an array of titles from Starz Digital that will bolster our UMC content library,” said Angela Northington, RLJ Entertainment’s senior VP of urban content acquisitions. “This package is comprised of titles ranging from comedy and drama to action/thriller and documentary. It is in line with what our chairman, Bob Johnson, has envisioned for growing the UMC digital channel.”

Mara Winokur, the senior VP at Starz Digital, commented, “Starz Digital is always seeking new opportunities to identify relationships with distributors on emerging digital platforms. This recent UMC agreement brings strong titles from our portfolio of urban library programming with an on-target digital outlet that is a great match for the content.”