Starz barely missed analyst projections for its Q1 earnings, which were reported at market close on Thursday.
Analysts projected that Starz would post earnings of $0.68 per share and revenue of $435.6 million. Instead, Starz posted earnings of $0.65 per share and revenue of $431.9 million. That is a revenue decrease of 4 percent from the same period last year.
In addition, Starz subscriptions climbed by 400,000 to a new high of 24 million since December 31, 2015, and the newly unveiled Starz Encore subscriptions rose by 200,000 to 32.4 million. Combined, the pay network now boasts 56.4 million total subscriptions.
“During the first quarter, Starz continued to execute against our growth strategy for the business,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said in a statement. “We continued to see successful results from our highly rated, award-winning and diverse original programming.
“‘Outlander’ and ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ garnered very strong critical acclaim and viewership, with the second season of ‘Outlander’ doubling its first season premiere and becoming the most-watched season premiere telecast ever for a new or returning STARZ Original series,” he added.
The new Starz service will now represent up to 14 distinct linear channels (11 in HD) and approximately 5,000 movie titles and television episodes every year, including nearly 2,200 movies, per Starz.
It offers more than 1,250 movies and episodes of television programming monthly, with viewing options on linear TV, on-demand, and online as part of a monthly subscription. MoviePlex accounts for the remaining three channels offered by Starz’ multichannel video distributors.