Starz ended 2023 with 19.7 million domestic subscribers, marking an increase of almost 300,000 on the previous quarter. As has been the case with Starz in general, the fourth calendar quarter saw an increase in streaming subscribers and a decrease in the number of linear subscribers.
Starz ended the previous quarter with 12.02 million domestic streaming subscribers. With the service having ended the fourth calendar quarter (Lionsgate’s fiscal Q3 2024) with 12.63 million, Starz added just over 600,000 subscribers in the last three months of the year. On a year-over-year basis, Starz also saw an increase of more than one million subscribers.
In terms of domestic linear subscribers, Starz ended 2023 with 7.1 million, down roughly 300,000 from the 7.42 million reported at the end of the third calendar quarter. On a year-over-year basis, Starz saw a decrease of roughly 1.2 million linear subscribers.
All of which resulted in Starz closing out 2023 with 19.73 million domestic subscribers, an increase of 290,000 on the previous quarter. Due to the year-over-year domestic linear subscriber losses being slightly higher than the streaming gains, Starz ended 2023 with 150,000 fewer domestic subscribers overall.
In total, Lionsgate’s services (Starz, Lionsgate+ and StarzPlay Arabia) totaled 27.92 million at the end of 2023. This breaks down to include 19.07 million OTT subscribers and 8.85 million linear subscribers. The 27.92 million resulted in a decrease of 120,000 on the previous quarter and an increase of 940,000 subscribers on the close of 2022.
Throughout 2023, Lionsgate has gradually been in the process of separating its Starz and Lionsgate businesses. This came to somewhat of a head in late December when Lionsgate confirmed it is formally separating its studio business from the Starz business, with the deal expected to close in the spring of 2024.
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