Starz Encore Signs Programming Deal

  • January 21, 2003
Starz Encore Group has licensed films and series from Universal Domestic Television and Buena Vista Pay Television Sales for use on its thematic multiplex channels, including Westerns, STARZ! Cinema and WAM! As part of the agreement, Starz Encore also obtains the rights to make all of the programming available on Starz On Demand, its subscription video-on-demand service.

The Universal Domestic Television deal includes recent theatricals that will be programmed on the STARZ! Cinema channel, such as Robert Altman's "Cookie's Fortune," director Mike Leigh's "Secrets & Lies" and "Topsy Turvy," and "The Apostle," written, directed and starring Robert Duvall. WAM!, the 24-hour, commercial-free tween channel, gets exclusive U.S. rights to two series, "Young Hercules," starring Ryan Gosling, and "Weird Science," starring Vanessa Angel. The Westerns channel gets the exclusive rights to the early '70s television series "Alias Smith and Jones," starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy.

The Buena Vista Pay Television Sales deal includes many classic films from the David O. Selznick library such as "Duel in the Sun" (Gregory Peck), "Intermezzo" (Ingrid Bergman), plus Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman), "Rebecca" (Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine), "Spellbound" (Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman), and "The Paradine Case" (Gregory Peck, Charles Laughton). Other memorable titles include "Straw Dogs" (Dustin Hoffman), "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" (Jane Fonda), "Take the Money and Run" (Woody Allen), and "For Love of Ivy" (Sidney Poitier).

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"These two deals add to the diversity of our programming with top product to play across many of our Starz SuperPak channels and Starz on Demand," says David Salinger, vice president of acquisitions, Starz Encore Group. "Plus, we get to provide our subscribers with the chance to see some of the series that they have been asking for."

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