Starz executives were bullish Friday about the premium cabler’s digital-led transformation making headway in the first quarter, despite posting a revenue dip and a widened loss.
During the three months to June 30, overall revenues at the premium cabler were $307.9 million, just down from a year-earlier $319.7 million. OTT streaming revenue was virtually unchanged at $221.3 million, while linear and other revenue fell back to $86.6 million, compared to $98.6 million in the same period of 2025, due to continued secular decline in the traditional cable TV business.
“We expect this revenue trend to continue, putting us on a solid path toward achieving our outlook of positive annual OTT revenue growth in 2026,” Jeffrey Hirsch, president and CEO of Starz, said in prepared remarks to analysts on Friday as his company has focused on streaming-led growth to expand its market share.
Starz reported a widened net loss of $189.4 million, against year-earlier $42.6 million net loss, due mainly to one-off restructuring costs of $147 million in the quarter to account for contract termination fees after ending a Universal Pictures post pay one film output deal in April 2026. Cleaning up the balance sheet comes amid a strategic shift to digital services and streaming TV growth to go beyond legacy linear cable packages.
