Entertainment

  2010 MAR 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- Starz Entertainment, LLC, and Disney-ABC Domestic Television, a division of The Walt Disney Company, announced the signing of a new, exclusive long-term licensing agreement for theatrical releases from The Walt Disney Studios through 2015. The previous output agreement was set to run through 2012. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

  The deal extension provides Starz with exclusive pay TV rights to exhibit theatrically released Walt Disney Studios live-action and animated feature films, including those from Marvel Entertainment, on its Starz, Encore and MoviePlex linear channels, and its related on-demand and IP-based services, both in standard and high definition. Walt Disney Studios theatrical releases in the agreement, in addition to Marvel, include pictures produced under the Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney-Pixar, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures labels. Theatrical releases from DreamWorks Studios and Miramax Films will not be licensed to Starz under the new agreement ...read more

  2010 MAR 19 - (VerticalNews.com) -- Starz Entertainment has acquired U.S. television rights to TANDEM Communications' ground-breaking eight-hour television adaptation of Ken Follett's bestselling novel "The Pillars of the Earth." Starz will air the series, produced by Tandem Communications, MUSE Entertainment and Ridley and Tony Scott's SCOTT FREE Films, as a summer event.

  The $40 million series is directed by three-time DGA award-winner Sergio Mimica-Gezzan ("Heroes," "Into the West") and was shot on location in Hungary and Austria with a star-studded cast including: Ian McShane ("Deadwood," Sexy Beast), Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist, A Knight's Tale), Matthew Macfadyen (Ridley Scott's upcoming Robin Hood, Pride and Prejudice), Eddie Redmayne (The Yellow Handkerchief, The Good Shepherd), Hayley Atwell (The Duchess), Sarah Parish ("Merlin"), Donald Sutherland ("Dirty Sexy Money," The Italian Job), Alison Pill (Milk) and Gordon Pinsent (Away From Her ...read more

  2010 FEB 12 - (VerticalNews.com) -- Updated figures for the series premiere of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" indicate that more than 3.3 million total viewers* tuned in for episode one of the new Starz Original, a record performance for a series debut on the premium pay TV network.

  Based on live plus same-day DVR viewing, the Friday night 10PM ET/PT airing on Starz drew a 2.1 HH rating (661,000 viewers) and Encore a 1.2 rating (580,000 viewers), or more than 1.2 million viewers combined. An additional 430,000 viewers (1.6 HH rating) watched at 11PM ET/PT on Starz ...read more