Starz boss Chris Albrecht is to step down from the Lionsgate-owned cable business next month after almost a decade. The company, which was acquired by Lionsgate in December 2016, will be overseen by chief operating officer Jeffrey Hirsch and the current leadership team, alongside Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. Programming president Carmi Zlotnik is to lead […]
Chris Albrecht tells Jesse Whittock about the new look Starz business following its merger with North American studio Lionsgate, about his relationship with cable king John Malone and how OTT is making international business more viable. Chris Albrecht is a proponent of entertainment media consolidation in today’s market, which is why he was a driving […]
Lionsgate has handed Marcello Bellisario an expanded role covering talent and casting at the indie studio and premium cabler Starz. Bellisario became the first head of casting & talent relations for Lionsgate’s TV operation when he joined the company in 2014. In his new senior VP, talent and casting position he will give Starz a full-time […]
NATPE welcomed the usual mix of buyers, sellers, programme-makers and hustlers to Miami last week. Buyers from Latin America were out in force, with a smattering of acquisition execs from Scandinavia, France and Germany. During the week, two of Spanish-language TV’s biggest players, Univision and Televisa, said they were unifying production and development, a major […]
Starz has greenlit a new season of Black Sails, and said it will be the pirate drama’s last. The premium cabler ordered a ten-episode final run of the Treasure Island prequel, which it will launch next year. The show, made in South Africa, is distributed by Starz’s sales arm, which says it has shopped it […]
Drama’s prolonged period in the sun doesn’t seem like ending any time soon. In fact, it feels like it might go on longer than anyone could have predicted. In the US, there are near-on 70 cable channels commissioning shows, while Europe has seen an explosion of free and pay TV channels and producers coming together […]
Virgin Media has acquired first-run rights to comedy-drama Ash Vs Evil Dead, a move that creates a “step-change” in the battle for exclusive programming in the UK. The pay TV service has acquired on-demand rights to the zombie series from Starz Digital, the on-demand licensing arm of the US premium pay firm Starz. This takes […]
Premium cable channel Starz has given the greenlight to a second season of new zombie action series Ash Vs Evil Dead. The US network pointed to “strong fan, affiliate and distributor demand” as the key factor in the early renewal of its Sam Raimi-produced original. The first season fo the show, which is based on […]
US premium cable channel Starz has signed on as coproducer of BBC Two drama Close to the Enemy, which comes from writer Stephen Poliakoff. The deal with distributor All3Media International hands Starz exclusive US premium rights to the six-part drama. Writer Poliakoff was attached to previous Starz drama Dancing on the Edge. He will write […]
Sam Raimi classic zombie horror movie The Evil Dead is being resurrected as a TV series at US cable net Starz. The project will reunite director Raimi with the other original filmmakers, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell. Ash Vs. Evil Dead, as the series will be known, will run to 10 30-minute episodes and launch […]
