Starz, YouTube Renew TV Distribution Deal

Starz and YouTube have renewed their distribution partnership with a brand new multiyear deal that guarantees extra bundling alternatives.

Starz is the U.S. cable and streaming model behind the Outlander and Energy franchises, in addition to not too long ago debuted Three Girls and the thriller Sweetpea. 

“We’re excited to deepen our partnership with YouTube TV, the fastest-growing pay TV distributor. This partnership additional enhances our skill to ship Starz’s intensive assortment of premium programming to broader audiences at an distinctive worth,” Alison Hoffman, Starz Networks president, mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday.

Phrases of the brand new multiyear deal weren’t disclosed, however Starz first launched on YouTube TV in 2018 and can also be out there immediately on the Google platform’s Primetime Channels that debuted two years in the past.  In addition to having the ability to bundle Starz with Max, Paramount+ and Showtime, Starz may also be packaged with MGM+ on YouTube TV for subscription financial savings. Starz can also be bundled with BritBox on Starz.com.

Bundling has turn into an more and more go-to choice for media giants as they appear to bolster revenues from their cable and streaming platforms after years of over-spending on content material. The distribution deal extension for Starz additionally comes as YouTube and its TV app have overtaken Netflix and different streaming rivals in  Nielsen’s month-to-month rankings of TV media distributors.

In response to the Nielsen Gauge, viewing of YouTube on TV units accounted for 10.6 p.c of viewing on linked gadgets in August, in comparison with 7.9 p.c for Netflix, and three.1 p.c for Prime Video (everybody else adopted with lower than 3 p.c).

YouTube TV as a subscription streaming service provides round 100 reside and on-demand TV channels and at present has over 8 million subscribers.