Starz Reaches Multi-Year Licensing Pact With Lionsgate

Will bring over 500 films to company's 17 premium movie channels

By Tim Baysinger -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/2/2012 11:21:14 AM

Starz Entertainment and Lionsgate have reached a multi-year licensing agreement that gives Starz access to over 500 of the studio's films.

The comprehensive new agreement is Lionsgate's first long-term library deal with Starz Entertainment. Films will not be available to Starz until after they have aired on Lionsgate's jointly-run network Epix.

Recent Lionsgate theatrical releases in the library agreement include: The Expendables, The Last Exorcism, Conan the Barbarian, Abduction, Margin Call, Red State, Precious, Rambo, and From Paris With Love. Older titles include both the Tyler Perry and Saw franchises, Crash, Monster's Ball and Reservoir Dogs.

"We are always striving to secure a long-term pipeline of quality library content to complement our first-run output film programming from Disney and Sony. This agreement -- with a terrific partner in Lionsgate -- helps us meet those long-term programming goals," said Stephan Shelanski, executive VP, programming for Starz.

Jim Packer, Lionsgate president of worldwide television and digital distribution, added, "This is another significant step in the ongoing monetization of our 13,000-title filmed entertainment library, and we're delighted to extend and expand our productive longterm relationship with Starz, with whom we most recently partnered on the television series Boss."