Companies Unveil
Wide-Scale Rollout of Advanced Premium Cable Services
The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers, About Schmidt, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring, and Anger Management Headline Upcoming Blockbuster Starz On Demand and
STARZ! HD Winter Slate
Anaheim,
Calif. (The Western Show)
– December 3, 2003 – Comcast, the country’s leading
cable and broadband communications provider, and Starz Encore Group LLC (Starz
Encore Group), the largest provider of premium movie services in the
United States, today announced a series of launches
of Starz On Demand and STARZ! HD on Comcast’s cable systems. Together, these constitute one of the largest rollouts of advanced premium services in the history of
cable.
The
Starz
On Demand subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) movie
service gives Comcast Digital Cable customers the
opportunity to enjoy the most robust on-demand movie offering in the
United States, with the addition of more than 100 movies per month on Starz On
Demand available at no additional
charge as part of
a monthly STARZ! subscription. STARZ! HD, launched live today
and transmitted in wide-screen 16x9 1080i with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, is the
Hi-Def version of the flagship STARZ! service, showcasing a mix of recent
Hollywood hits and other popular films.
Comcast Senior Vice President of Marketing and New Products
Andy Addis and Starz Encore Group President of Sales and Marketing Robert
B. Clasen made the announcement in a joint press conference at the Western Show
at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Starz On Demand is now available for STARZ!
subscribers receiving Comcast’s ON DEMAND service, which is available to more than 30 percent of the company's customers in
markets including Philadelphia, central and northern New Jersey, New England,
Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Richmond, Detroit, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston and
Huntsville. Comcast will continue to launch Starz On Demand as it rolls out its ON DEMAND services in additional markets in 2003 and
2004. The on-demand content will be available at no extra
charge to Comcast Digital Cable customers who
subscribe to STARZ!.
The rollout of STARZ! HD makes the high-definition
movie service available to customers in markets where Comcast offers HDTV
service. STARZ! HD also is offered at no extra charge for STARZ! subscribers
with Comcast Digital Cable service and an HDTV-enabled Digital Cable box
provided by Comcast.
"Comcast is committed
to bringing our customers a great value and enabling them to experience
television on their terms: what they want to watch when and how they want to
watch it," said Addis. "The addition of Starz On Demand and STARZ! HD brings
viewers exciting new ways to enjoy the biggest and best movies from Starz
Encore's unmatched library, with no additional equipment purchase necessary.
We're pleased to extend our relationship with Starz Encore Group in bringing
these new services to our customers."
Clasen
added “Four years ago at The Western Show, John J. Sie (Starz Encore’s founder,
chairman, and CEO) unveiled the first public demonstration of the modern-day
vision for SVOD. It is fitting that here today we are able to announce that
millions of homes served by Comcast will now have access to this marvelous new
service. With a slate of
blockbuster films coming soon to STARZ! and Starz On Demand, including The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,
Chicago, About Schmidt, Anger Management, and Gangs of New York, in addition
to current hit movies, including 8
Mile and The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring, we have the greatest opportunity to sell and market
STARZ! in the history of our company with the launch of Starz On Demand on
Comcast.”
Clasen
continued, “Today’s announcement of the launch of Starz On Demand and STARZ! HD
represents the first fruition of the new deal we signed with Comcast in September. We look forward to working closely with
Comcast to ensure their customers are aware of this new leap forward in
television technology, and particularly the fact that they will be available
with no additional charge as part of the regular STARZ!
package.”
About
Comcast
Headquartered
in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable is a division of Comcast Corporation, a
developer, manager and operator of broadband cable networks and provider of
programming content. Operating in 17 of the United States' 20 largest
metropolitan areas, Comcast is one of the leading communications, media and
entertainment companies in the world.
Providing basic cable, Digital Cable, high-speed Internet and telephone
services, Comcast is the company to look to first for the communications
products and services that connect people to what’s important in their
lives. The company’s 55,000
employees serve more than 21 million
customers.
About
Starz On Demand
Starz
On Demand is an enhancement to STARZ!, providing impulse viewing of STARZ!
movies with full "DVD-like" functionality as part of the monthly STARZ!
subscription and with no fee per view. Starz On Demand features great movies every month, selected from titles shown across the
Starz Super Pak, Starz Encore Group's collection of up to 13 digital movie
channels. STARZ! is also the first pay TV service to offer its subscription VOD
programming offered in high definition with Starz On Demand HD. For more information on Starz On Demand,
and to view an interactive demonstration of Starz On Demand, please visit
www.starzondemand.com
Starz
On Demand offers a steady supply of blockbuster titles including, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, Signs, XXX, Austin Powers in
Goldmember, Sweet Home Alabama,
8 Mile, and Red Dragon, as well as upcoming hits
such as The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers, Chicago, Anger Management, Gangs of New York, Bringing Down the House,
Daddy Day Care, Finding Nemo, and The
Hulk. Hollywood studios supplying films to Starz On Demand include Disney,
Universal, Sony, MGM, Paramount, New Line, Revolution Studios, and
Miramax.
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