Shares of Lionsgate fell in Friday trading after a report said Comcast had informed the company it planned to drop its premium-cable Starz network, home to series such as “Power” and “Outlander” – a move that would deprive the outlet of millions of subscribers.
A Comcast representative declined to comment and Lionsgate declined to make executives available for comment. Lionsgate’s Class A share were down 6.84% in late Friday trading, off 65 cents to $8.85 per share
One person familiar with the matter said the companies are in renewal discussions and have four months to go before their current pact ends. Talks are continuing, this person said. The Information previously reported on the possibility that Comcast could drop Starz.
The early-stage brouhaha is indicative of the new strains weighing upon relationships between programmers and cable and satellite distributors. Recent weeks have seen a plethora of blackouts and end-game maneuvers between AT&T and CBS, AT&T and Nexstar Media and Dish and a host of different programming entities. At present, the various Fox-branded regional sports networks are no longer available on Dish’s satellite service as a result of breakdown in talks between the two sides. Control over those outlets recently moved to Sinclair Broadcast Group, except for the YES Network, now controlled by a consortium that includes Sinclair, The New York Yankees and Amazon.
Starz has been in talks with other entities in recent days. On Friday, the cable outlet struck a new carrigae agreement with AT&T that calls for AT&T to offer the suite of Starz and StarzEncore networks across DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-verse.