Disney's relationship with Starz?

PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Anyone know what Disney's relationship is with Starz? I know they don't own them or have ownership in them, but it seems like they do when considering the amount of Disney programs found on Starz.
 
216bruce

216bruce

Well-Known Member
Cut and pasted from another site.

BURBANK, Calif. and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Starz Entertainment, LLC, and Disney-ABC Domestic Television, a division of The Walt Disney Company, announced today the signing of a new, exclusive long-term licensing agreement for theatrical releases from The Walt Disney Studios through 2015. The previous output agreement was set to run through 2012. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The deal extension provides Starz with exclusive pay TV rights to exhibit theatrically released Walt Disney Studios live-action and animated feature films, including those from Marvel Entertainment, on its Starz, Encore and MoviePlex linear channels, and its related on-demand and IP-based services, both in standard and high definition. Walt Disney Studios theatrical releases in the agreement, in addition to Marvel, include pictures produced under the Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney-Pixar, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures labels. Theatrical releases from DreamWorks Studios and Miramax Films will not be licensed to Starz under the new agreement.

There's a lot more, but I think you get the idea.
 
216bruce

216bruce

Well-Known Member
They are a fairly independent company but do have a strong affiliation with John Malone's Liberty Media group. Disney uses them as a pay-tv distributor and since the mouse already owns a pretty good distribution platform for basic cable type programming from the ABC Cap Cities purchase, this is just a bit of "icing on the cake". As far as a purchase goes, yeah I guess it wouldn't hurt but the future of film distribution isn't in pay cable channels as we know them. Now a Netflix kind of thing/purchase...now we're talking.
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
216bruce said:
They are a fairly independent company but do have a strong affiliation with John Malone's Liberty Media group. Disney uses them as a pay-tv distributor and since the mouse already owns a pretty good distribution platform for basic cable type programming from the ABC Cap Cities purchase, this is just a bit of "icing on the cake". As far as a purchase goes, yeah I guess it wouldn't hurt but the future of film distribution isn't in pay cable channels as we know them. Now a Netflix kind of thing/purchase...now we're talking.
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Disney owns Hulu (or a partnership in it).

Time-Warner has HBO and Cinamex. Viacom has Showtime and the Movie Channel. Universal, Sony, and Fox have non-pay TV cable movie channels.

Disney does own a bunch of cable networks (outright or in partnership with), including the Disney Channels (kids programming), the ESPN networks, Lifetime Networks, A&E networks (including the History Channels, Bio TV, etc.), ABC Family, and E! Entertainment, but no movie channels in that mix.

The trend in pay networks isn't so much the movies, but the series. All my favorites are on pay TV. Starz has some original series as well. If Disney owned a movie channel, such as Starz, they can program it with original series from their studios, in addition to their movies. HBO also has great original movies, too.

It's easier for them to buy Starz than to start a new network. They can also deliver Starz content through Hulu or something like HBO Go for Starz. Disney has a great arrangement with them with that contact, but it will expire. The only way to guarantee indefinately continuity of that contract is to own them (or partner with them).
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
stevehousse said:
Had no idea Disney has ownership in E! Or Lifetime?!?
Click to expand...
Really?! Wow. Well, they don't own 100% of those networks. They have a partnership stake in them. I'm not sure how much, though. Hearst Broadcasting is also a partner in Lifetime, A&E, and ESPN.
 

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