Beverly Hills, Calif. - June 20, 2016 - Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) announced today that Michael Thornton has decided to step down from his role as Chief Revenue Officer of Starz. He will remain a consultant to the company into the fall.

Starz Chief Executive Officer Chris Albrecht said, 'I want to thank Michael for his guidance and leadership over the past five years, first as Executive Vice President, Acquisitions, Business and Legal Affairs, and then as Chief Revenue Officer. As part of the executive team, he oversaw the expansion of both our domestic and international distribution businesses, and he was instrumental in revenue growth, helping to make STARZ the second most widely distributed premium network in the U.S.'

Mr. Thornton will not be replaced as Chief Revenue Officer.

Prior to joining Starz in 2011, Thornton served in several senior executive positions with programming and legal responsibilities during his career. From 2005 until joining Starz, he was at Disney/ABC Domestic Television as Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. He oversaw multi-platform strategy and negotiations for post-theatrical distribution of The Walt Disney Studios' film output and the post-network distribution of ABC Studios' television product. Prior to that, Thornton was Senior Vice President, Programming Acquisitions for DIRECTV, where he led programming strategy, including the acquisition of all on-air acquired and original programming and negotiated successfully numerous network, local broadcast station, sports subscription and one-off event deals.

About Starz
Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) is a leading integrated global media and entertainment company with operating units that provide premium subscription video programming on domestic U.S. pay television networks (Starz Networks) and global content distribution (Starz Distribution), www.starz.com. The Starz Networks operating unit is home to the flagship STARZ® brand with 24.0 million subscribers in the United States as of March 31, 2016, with the STARZ ENCORE network at 32.4 million subscribers. Through STARZ, the company provides high quality, entertaining premium subscription video programming with 17 premium pay TV channels and associated on-demand and online services. STARZ is sold through U.S. multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, telecommunications companies, and other online and digital platforms. Starz offers subscribers more than 5,000 distinct premium television episodes and feature films every year and up to 1,500 every month, including STARZ Original series, first-run movies and other popular movie and television programming. The Starz Distribution operating unit is home to the Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Digital, and Starz Worldwide Distribution divisions. In addition to STARZ Original series, Starz Distribution develops, produces and acquires movies, television and other entertainment content for worldwide home video, digital, and television licensing and sales.

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Contacts:

Theano Apostolou Eric Becker

(424) 204-2052 (303) 638-3469
theano@starz.com eric.becker@starz.com

SOURCE: Starz

Starz LLC published this content on 21 June 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
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