Comcast Cable and Starz Encore Group Announce
Starz On Demand and STARZ! HD Launches 

 

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.

 

 

************************************************************************************************************************************