Disney and Starz Entertainment Extend Pay TV Output Agreement

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.

Janice Marinelli, president, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, and Bill Myers, Starz Entertainment president and chief operating officer, announced the agreement on behalf of the companies.

"Disney and Starz have been partners since the launch of the flagship Starz premium channel back in 1994, and we are pleased to be able to extend our very successful relationship," said Marinelli. "With this long-term extension, Starz's subscribers will continue to experience the magic and excitement of our Walt Disney Studios motion pictures," she continued.

Myers said, "Commercial-free movies from Disney have always been a cornerstone of our programming and will remain so for years to come even as we add original series to our movie mix."  

Myers noted that Starz has been a leader in making use of new technology to allow subscribers to enjoy programming in more convenient ways.  "This agreement secures our ability to meet the needs of current and future subscribers in a fast-changing media landscape," he said.

Walt Disney Studios animated movies and live-action feature films coming exclusively to Starz in 2010 include: Up, The Princess and the Frog, The Proposal (starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds), G-Force, Old Dogs (starring Robin Williams and John Travolta), Hannah Montana: The Movie, Alice in Wonderland; and Race to Witch Mountain.

Starz Entertainment is the exclusive subscription television and broadband provider of Starz Originals (including "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," "Party Down," and "Gravity") and feature films.  First-run movies are from leading Hollywood studios including Walt Disney Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Overture Films, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Disney-Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, TriStar, Screen Gems, Sony Classics and Warren Miller Films. Starz licenses hundreds of feature films from a wide array of independent distributors including IFC, and Summit Entertainment and a vast collection of classic and favorite titles from most Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros., Universal and MGM.

About Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Disney-ABC Domestic Television (DADT) oversees content distribution for The Walt Disney Company within the United States and Canada. The division provides top tier motion pictures and television programming to a wide spectrum of traditional and new media platforms including pay television, basic cable, broadcast television, video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand, electronic sell-through, mobile and broadband.  Disney-ABC Domestic Television is a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney Enterprises, Inc.

About Starz Entertainment

Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 16.9 million and 30.6 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Starz (Nasdaq: LSTZA), a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

SOURCE Starz Entertainment, LLC