What’s the North Star for Starz as it builds and manages its programming and growth? Intense focus on the network’s primary audience, according to executives. Starz leadership said its decision to stay committed to serving its majority-female audience with diverse stories is the trick to its success.
“There’s an advantage of focus, I think it is hard to be everything to everyone,” Starz President Alison Hoffman told TheWrap’s CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman in a special conversation timed to TheWrap’s Power Women Summit New York event on Thursday, sponsored by STARZ #TakeTheLead, the exclusive entertainment sponsor, and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment.
“I think going after a mass audience, you need to be structurally set up to do that. I think a few players are. They’re trying to do that, but I think when you focus, you really can succeed in terms of execution,” she continued.
Hoffman was joined by Starz’s president of original programming Kathryn Busby during the conversation, which you can watch in full in the video above.
While the term “niche” can often refer to smaller or more specialized programming, Hoffman rejects the label for Starz, noting that two-thirds of its viewers are women and 70% of their app subscribers are women, a group that makes up the majority of the U.S. population (50.5%), per the U.S. Census for 2025. And Starz, which caters to women and underrepresented audiences, plans to satisfy those communities’ unique “appetite.”
“Women are powering the success of this network, and we feel like there’s a lot more room and a lot more space to grow,” Hoffman said, pointing out some of their most successful series that have expanded into franchises and happen to feature diverse casts, like its flagship shows “Outlander” and “Power.”
“These are all franchises that are hugely, commercially successful. I think a lot of people in the industry wish that they had these shows, and they’re powered by women audiences,” Hoffman added. “This is something that is not just the foundation of our business and our market position, but it is a growth strategy as well.”
The network discovered this secret sauce when “Power,” a crime drama about a drug dealer trying to go legit, and “Outlander,” an adaptation of the epic romance fantasy novels, premiered a few months apart.
“Over a decade ago, we premiered ‘Power,’ and a few months later we premiered ‘Outlander,’ and I think both of those shows were really eye-opening for us,” Hoffman said. “What was amazing about ‘Power’ is that it showed incredible in-season growth — that’s something that everybody covets in the entertainment industry. That’s what you want, so when we started to look into sort of the data and the discourse and what is going on here, it was women. It was women who were fueling the success of that show.”
As Hoffman explained, a few months later, Starz launched “Outlander,” which brought in a wave of female viewers. She recalled holding a screening for the series that ended up needing an “overflow screening” just to accommodate every attendee eager to see the adaptation of the beloved Diana Gabaldon book series.
“We had a line around the corner of women waiting to come and see who was going to play Claire Fraser and Jamie Fraser and what was their first look,” Hoffman said. “I think when you see the faces of people and you see women turning out in droves and with such urgency — and I think ‘Power’ speaks to the urgency as well — it just showed that there was something not happening in the marketplace that was getting this really, really powerful response.”
Ultimately, Busby said Starz has made a commitment to its woman-led audience for more diverse stories, and they plan to continue to make good on it.
“When you start like that, you’re developing a relationship and a contract with your audience, and so we continued to serve that audience from ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ and ‘P-Valley’ and ‘Sweet Pea’ and ‘Raising Kanan,’” Busby said. “We know what our viewers want, and we continue to give them authentically-told stories that really are about women, that appeal to women.”
About Power Women New York:
TheWrap Foundation’s invite-only Power Women Breakfast returns to New York with an exclusive gathering of 100 leaders across entertainment, media and business, featuring intimate conversations with trailblazing women across the industry.
The event is sponsored by STARZ #TakeTheLead, the exclusive entertainment sponsor, and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment. Table sponsors include Blank Rome LLP, Britbox, Disney Entertainment, Gersh, The Lede Company, NBCU, PMK Entertainment, Superconnector Studios, Versant and Whalar.
