Starz Entertainment LLC., (doing business as Starz Inc., and founded as Encore Movie Group in 1991) is an American entertainment company that owns U.S. pay television channels, including the namesake

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consist ...

network, and a media distribution company. The company is headquartered at

Meridian, Colorado Meridian is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Douglas County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population ...

, and uses nearby Englewood as its location in corporate filings and press releases. On December 8, 2016, it became a subsidiary of Lionsgate.

History

Early history

Encore Movie Group (also known as Encore Media Group) was founded in 1991 as a

wholly owned A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

television programming subsidiary and a joint venture of

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...

and Tele-Communications Inc., two companies that were controlled by John C. Malone. The premium channel Encore was launched in 1991 on cable systems operated by Tele-Communications Inc., followed by the launch of

in 1994, and Encore Plex (now MoviePlex) in 1997. On June 2, 1997, TCI announced it would transfer part of its ownership stake in Encore Media Group to sister company Liberty Media, due in part to substantial losses incurred by the Starz network. TCI retained a minority 20% ownership interest in Encore Media Group until Liberty Media acquired TCI's stake following its 1999 merger with AT&T Corporation. In 1999, Encore Media Group was renamed the Starz Encore Media Group, "Media" was dropped off in 2001. As part of a corporate restructuring in 2003, Starz Encore Group eliminated 100 jobs in its nine regional offices, four of which have been closed. On March 25, 2005, Starz Encore Group was renamed Starz Entertainment, and on March 28, Starz! was renamed Starz (dropping the exclamation point) and adopted a new logo featuring a hand-drawn star and a wordmark set in Helvetica Neue Black.

Starz Media

On August 31, 2006, Liberty Media acquired the US division of IDT Entertainment for $186 million, followed by the Canadian and Australian divisions on September 29, 2006. IDT Entertainment was then merged under Starz Entertainment Group and renamed Starz Media. On November 19, 2009, Liberty Media spun off Starz Entertainment Group into a separate tracking stock, known as Liberty Starz. On January 1, 2010, Chris Albrecht became the president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Liberty Starz, overseeing the company's entities including Starz Entertainment, Overture Films, Anchor Bay Entertainment and

Film Roman Film Roman, LLC is an American independent animation studio currently based in Woodland Hills, California and formerly in Burbank. It was previously owned by Starz Inc., which is now a division of Lionsgate, and later by Waterman Entertainment, ...

. On January 4, 2011, The Weinstein Company acquired 25% of Starz Media, one of the operating units of Liberty Starz. The arrangement included a five-year distribution deal under which starting in April 2011, Liberty Starz's Anchor Bay Entertainment would release new TWC films on DVD and Starz Digital Media would handle online downloads and streaming. On August 8, 2012, Liberty Media announced that it would spin-off Liberty Starz into a separate public company; the transaction includes about $1.5 billion of debt. The spin-off of the subsidiary was expected to be completed by the end of 2012, but was actually completed on January 11, 2013. As a result of the spin-off, Liberty Starz changed its name to "Starz Inc." Starz Inc.'s businesses and assets at the time consisted of Starz Networks, Starz Distribution, and its minority stake in Arc Productions.

Acquisition by Lionsgate

On February 11, 2015, John C. Malone, the majority shareholder in both Starz and its former parent company Liberty Media, swapped a 4.5% stake with 14.5% of the voting power in Starz Inc. for 3.4% of shares in film and television entertainment company Lionsgate while joining the company's board of directors.Lionsgate, Starz Swap Stock as John Malone Joins Board
Brent Lang variety.com February 11, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015 Fourteen days later, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht hinted a possible merger with Lionsgate.
Jeff Berman thestreet.com February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015 On November 10, 2015, Malone's two other companies,

Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with ...

and Discovery Communications, made a joint investment of $195–400 million in Lionsgate and acquired a 3.4% stake in the company. On June 30, 2016, Lionsgate agreed to acquire Starz Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash and stock. As part of the acquisition by Lionsgate, Starz Inc.'s home entertainment business have been subsumed into Lionsgate's Worldwide Home Entertainment division, as well as Starz Inc.'s Worldwide TV distribution group being similarly combined. On December 8, 2016, the deal was finalized thus making Starz a subsidiary of Lionsgate.

Starz Networks

Starz Networks currently consists of 17 American cable TV channels. As of December 31, 2012,

and

Starz Encore Starz Encore is an American premium television channel owned by Starz Inc. a subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment and headquartered at the Meridian International Business Center complex in Meridian, Colorado, United States. Launched as Encore ...

serve a combined 56 million subscribers, including 21 million at STARZ, and 35 million at Starz Encore. Starz, Starz Encore, and MoviePlex air over 1,000 movies monthly across 17 linear networks, On Demand, and online offerings through Starz Encore Play and MoviePlex Play.

List of Starz-owned channels

* MoviePlex ** MoviePlex ** IndiePlex ** RetroPlex *

** Starz ** Starz Cinema ** Starz Comedy ** Starz Edge ** Starz in Black ** Starz Kids & Family *

** Starz Encore ** Starz Encore Action ** Starz Encore Black ** Starz Encore Classic ** Starz Encore Español ** Starz Encore Family ** Starz Encore Suspense ** Starz Encore Westerns

References

External links

*
About Us Page
{{Lions Gate Entertainment Starz Entertainment Group Lionsgate subsidiaries Former Liberty Media subsidiaries Cable network groups in the United States American companies established in 1991 Entertainment companies established in 1991 Mass media companies established in 1991 Entertainment companies of the United States Mass media companies of the United States Companies based in Meridian, Colorado 2016 mergers and acquisitions