Verizon Inks Starz Deal

NEW YORK/ENGLEWOOD, May
27: Verizon has reached a multi-year deal to offer movies from Starz
Entertainment’s premium networks to its more than 8.5 million broadband
subscribers, via the Starz Play subscription service.

Starz Play offers a
variety of first-run hit movies, independent films and classics, in addition to
extreme sports, concerts, anime, westerns and original programming. Features of
the subscription service include unlimited viewing of downloaded movies for as
long as the user's Starz Play membership is valid and the title is available on
the service, as well as a live stream of the premium Starz TV channel. Starz
Play offers a catalogue of more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 total monthly video
selections. Up to 30 new titles are added each Friday.

In addition to blockbuster
features like Spider-Man 3, Ratatouille and National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Starz Play will also feature new original content
from Starz including the recently announced series Crash.

Verizon and Starz also
announced an extension and expansion of their current FiOS TV affiliation
agreement, which was signed in April 2005. The new deal secures delivery of all
16 Starz, Encore and MoviePlex premium commercial-free movie channels, the
company's HD channels, and the associated Starz Entertainment subscription VOD
offerings: Starz On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore On Demand and Encore HD
On Demand.

—By Mansha Daswani