Starz Entertainment Corp. (STRZ) Earnings

Management highlights

Price point of $11.99 is digesting well throughout the business, with April off to a strong start even with the rate increase in April 1st. The content pipeline is very full and exciting with projects like an untitled Black Rodeo show, Fightland premiering July 31st, Kingmaker, Masquerade in development, landed book series with Plan B as production partner, and they're right on track to delivering against the 50 percent goal and may accelerate past it, laser focused on having most of the slate owned and controlled by stars long term.

Guidance

Right on track to delivering against the 50 percent goal and think they'll actually accelerate past that. Laser focused on having most of the slate owned and controlled by stars long term.

Analyst Q&A

• Q: Now that you're out of this agreement with Universal, what's the criteria for the acquisition of titles you'll be looking for, you know, to properly lead to whether a user acquisition or to limit churn? And then separately, does this lead to more room for spend on original content?

  A: We've developed a really robust database of first title streams and viewership on movies that we've acquired over the past from all the different studios. So we have a pretty good sense on, in terms of indie films, what kind of viewership and first title stream that we can pull from different titles, depending on what their box office was, how old they are, what characters are in it, what's the storyline. And so we're really able to kind of, like I said earlier, moneyball the portfolio to replace what we were seeing from the universal titles at a much more of a library price. Remember, we were paying pay-to rates, and they were performing much more like library because of just the strength of the titles being launched at Amazon. So we've got a pretty good view on what we need to acquire and at what price, and so you know, there's an ability to put a lot of the savings to the bottom line. You see that moving the guide to 20% in 27, but we're also reinvesting in the business to protect the revenue side of the business as well. And so we've been able to do both in a much, you know, highly economic positive aspect of the business.

• Q: You mentioned P-Valley is coming back at some point this year and, you know, it's been a long gap and I'm just wondering what your data kind of says about, you know, audience re-engagement for shows that have hiatuses that long. And, you know, does that kind of lead to more marketing spin to kind of get some of those viewers back that may have been gone?

  A: It's a great question. Like I think with P-Valley specifically, and we've seen this with other shows that have had longer breaks, Outlander is a good example where we've had a lot of breaks. The fan bases are so obsessed with these shows that they've been continually looking for it and coming back on the network. So I actually think the moment we bring P-Valley back, the obsessiveness and the craziness for the fan base will get people there. We also have the ability, obviously, with an app. to get to notify customers, which is a zero cost game for us as well. And so we've got a lot of different marketing tools that are not economically, you know, expensive for us to go ahead and bring them back. But I, you know, Outlander is a great example. That fan base has created a thing called Droughtlander, which is the off season. And they're online every day wondering when that show is coming back. And I think P-Valley brings that same kind of intensity from the fan base. And so I expect it to be a wonderful return to the network and a massive both subscriber gain as well as viewership gain when we get it back on the air.