The company has postponed part of its plans for Starz until the beginning of 2024, but it is moving forward with its exit from the region
Lionsgate has modified its plans for the coming months, postponing the separation of the Starz business until the beginning of 2024, but ensuring that it will complete the exit from Latin America this year.
After presenting 2% more earnings than expected by the market during the first fiscal quarter of 2024 (for a total of 908.6 million dollars), Lionsgate shared that although it maintains the plan to make Starz independent, its channel and premium platform (Lionsgate+ in other parts of the world), something that has been taking shape for several years now, this will not be completed this year.
As the company explained to investors, regulatory approvals and the strike in the US, with screenwriters and actors unemployed, have been factors in this delay.
The acquisition of Entertainment One, a purchase valued at 500 million dollars, another factor for the postponement of the separation of Starz, is part of a restructuring that will see the studio focus on the US, UK, Canada and Australia, leaving behind several other regions, including Latin America.
“We closed a favorable deal with a key distributor in Latin America that motivated us to exit the territory before December 31,” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said on the investor call.
Lionsgate+ had already left multiple European territories, including Germany, Italy and Spain, during 2022, significantly altering the expansive strategy that the platform had previously displayed.
The goal is to “continue to remove significant costs from the business,” Feltheimer said.
As far as productions are concerned, this is a big change in course, given that the platform has made four originals in Latin America -all in Mexico- since 2020, including one that has not been released: the Yellow series (title not yet confirmed), along with Fremantle and The Immigrant.
It has also been the home of Señorita 89, a Fábula production that is waiting for a second season; All Blood, a Spiral International production; and The refuge, also with Fable.
