Starz reports revenue, subscriber upticks for Q4 amid original content push


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Michelle Clancy

| 28 February 2016




Content giant Starz has reported fourth-quarter 2015 revenue of $427.6 million, up a half a percent since last year.



Operating income however decreased 60% to $54.9 million, thanks to programming expenses stemming from its hefty original content push: Programming costs were $196.2 million as it wrapped up 2015 with 76 episodes of STARZ Original series, drawing closer to the long-term target of 80-90 episodes.

That investment appears to be paying off in terms of subscribers; the company saw subscriptions for its premium cable network tick upwards by 300,000 since 30 September; full-year STARZ subscriptions increased by 500,000 to reach a new high of 23.6 million, with combined STARZ/ENCORE subscriptions totalling 55.8 million.

During the quarter it also partnered with Amazon to offer STARZ, and T-Mobile added free, unlimited STARZ PLAY streaming for STARZ subscribers on mobile devices — two things that likely added to its subscriber momentum.

In terms of programming highlights, 79% of 2015 top-rated STARZ programs were STARZ Original series episodes, it said. The company received six Golden Globe nominations for STARZ Original series Outlander, Flesh and Bone and Blunt Talk.

It also is working on what’s next: it invested in three new series development projects for underserved Latino audiences, greenlit The White Princess STARZ limited series (a follow-up to successful White Queen), and renewed Ash vs Evil Dead for a second season.

STARZ Live+7-viewership of original scripted series in 2015 increased by 20% compared to 2014; STARZ on-demand total viewership increased by more than 30%.

“In 2015, Starz demonstrated the strength of its core subscription business and made meaningful progress on the strategy of building a strong slate of original programming focused on targeting diverse and underserved audiences,” said Chris Albrecht, CEO at Starz.

“We expanded distribution of our content, with the recent successful launch of STARZ on Amazon and there is more to come in the future. We are very excited to be nearing completion of a new STARZ app that will allow distributors to bring the STARZ experience directly to more consumers.”

For the year, revenue increased 2% to $1.7 billion, with operating income decreasing just 9% to $409.7 million. Total programming expense was $655.7 million for the year.