Starz saw total revenue slide again in the second quarter of 2026 — but the media company reported its first year-over-year growth in streaming revenue in 18 months. Company execs believe the business is turning around, and they’ve raised their outlook for adjusted OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) growth for full-year 2026 from low single-digits to mid single-digits.
Total revenue in the second quarter was $307.9 million, down 4% year over year. OTT revenue as reported was $221.3 million, up ever so slightly from $221.1 million in the year-earlier period. However, Starz said, streaming revenue would have increased 1.4% in the June 2026 quarter excluding $3 million of OTT revenue related to Canadian operations that was recorded in Q2 2025. (Starz transitioned its Canadian operations from a distribution partnership with Bell to a content-licensing model at the end of 2025.)
Net loss ballooned to $189.4 million, compared with a loss of $42.5 million in Q2 2025. Starz reported an operating loss of $175.5 million (vs. $26.9 million a year earlier).
Taking a big bite out of Starz’s earnings: The company took a restructuring charge of $147 million in the second quarter of 2026 in association with the termination of its pay-2 film output agreement with Universal Pictures in April. The wind-down of the Universal deal was previously announced by Starz president and CEO Jeff Hirsch, who cited “lower viewership than we originally projected.” In prepared remarks Friday, Starz CFO Scott Macdonald said, “We continue to expect this to be the final content restructuring charge of this magnitude going forward, which sets the company up for meaningfully lower restructuring activity from here.” Given the timing of Starz’s final cash payments to Universal in 2028, Macdonald said, “we believe 2029 is shaping up to be a significant year for free cash flow growth relative to the trajectory we see across 2026 through 2028.”
