Starz & Lionsgate Strike Long-Term Movie Pact

SANTA MONICA/ENGLEWOOD: A new multi-year licensing agreement sees more than 500 Lionsgate film titles become available to the Starz Entertainment premium channels and services.

The pact marks Lionsgate’s first long-term library deal with Starz. The studio will now provide films across all platforms for the Starz, Encore and Movieplex premium channels, in addition to related HD, on demand, HD on demand and online services. Movies covered under the deal include The Expendables, The Last Exorcism, Conan the Barbarian, Abduction, Red State, Rambo, 3:10 to Yuma and Precious. Other titles include the Tyler Perry movie franchise, the Saw films as well as Crash, The Blair Witch Project, Reservoir Dogs, Dirty Dancing and Meatballs.

Jim Packer, Lionsgate’s president of worldwide television and digital distribution, said, "This is another significant step in the ongoing monetization of our 13,000-title filmed entertainment library, and we’re delighted to extend and expand our productive long-term relationship with Starz, with whom we most recently partnered on the television series Boss. Lionsgate remains committed to tapping traditional and digital buyers alike as we explore ways to unlock the value of our vast filmed entertainment library asset."

"Starz Entertainment offers its subscribers a quality combination of both original programming and theatrical films. We are always striving to secure a long-term pipeline of quality library content to complement our first-run output film programming from Disney and Sony. This agreement—with a terrific partner in Lionsgate—helps us meet those long-term programming goals," added Stephan Shelanski, the executive VP of programming for Starz Entertainment.