Comcast and Starz Entertainment Group Announce Groundbreaking
Movie Deal
Largest Movie Video-On-Demand Agreement to Date
Long-term Starz and Encore Channels Agreement
PHILADELPHIA, and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast
(Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the country's leading provider of cable,
entertainment and communications products and services, and Starz
Entertainment Group LLC (SEG), the largest provider of premium movie
services in the United States, today announced that they will offer
more than 1,500 movies a year from SEG's extensive library to
Comcast's ON DEMAND video-on-demand service. This is the single
largest video-on-demand movie content agreement to date. The agreement
also covers the launch of two new SEG premium movie channels on
Comcast systems and provides for the extension of the affiliation
agreement between the two companies into the next decade. Finally,
the agreement provides Comcast more control over future programming
costs while providing SEG greater predictability in its long-term
revenue stream.
The comprehensive agreement paves the way for Comcast to bring Starz
to more Comcast customers and expand Encore and its thematic channels
to additional digital cable customers. In addition to access to these
channels, the agreement covers broad video-on-demand rights. Comcast
plans to offer digital cable customers who subscribe to Starz 325 top
movie titles per month, and offer Encore customers 250 of these movie
titles per month - all at no additional charge. Digital cable
customers who would have paid $3-4 per movie to receive top movies now
will each be able to receive up to $1,000 per month worth of value at
no additional charge from Comcast.
Comcast will also make available for no additional charge 100 of the
250 Encore movies as part of a new digital cable package that will be
the gateway to video-on-demand for those customers who have previously
experienced traditional television content.
- http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50121576
Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)