HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today)
6/1/08
Starz Productions is filming their latest comedy feature, ‘Table For Three,’ starring a collection of Hollywood’s brightest young actors – Brandon Routh (”Superman Returns,”) Sophia Bush (”Stay Alive,”) Jesse Bradford, Jennifer Morrison, Johnny Galecki and Liza Lapira.
The Starz Production unit began filming in May, in and around Los Angeles.
“We’re really happy to have such talented and fresh actors for this project,” said executive producer Karen Bailey.
Another Starz Production in partnership with Anchor Bay Entertainment is distributing ‘Lower Learning,’ starring Eva Longoria Parker (”‘Desperate Housewives,”) Rob Corddry and Jason Biggs.
Starz is not normally known for being in the production business, but as one of the leaders in cable movie distribution.
It’s prod unit is part of Starz Media, LLC, a global production and distribution company, including entertainment brands Anchor Bay and Manga.
Starz Productions creates live-action, animated programming and partnership programming with other entertainment companies and produces films for direct DVD, television and theatres.
The distribution division of Starz, distributes its own programming as well as other programming under agreement with outside producers.
Starz Entertainment Introduces Starz Play and Internet Distribution:
Starz Media, announced its premium movie channels will be available to Verizon’s eight million internet customers.
Video downloads will transmit via satellite, cable or affiliated companies.
Vongo digital download launched by Starz in January 2006 has struggled to compete against download giants, Netflix and Blockbuster.
By comparison, Vongo attracted a mere 300,000 customers on average, per month, compared to seven million customers for Blockbuster.
Starz spokesperson, Tom Southwick has stated that “Starz did not have the ability,” to market Vongo as a stand alone service.
This is Starz first wholesale agreement.
Verizon will offer its own subscription plan for Starz products, a first for Verizon.
The deal likely will seal the fate for Vongo, which offers downloads for $9.99 compared to $5.99 for Starz Play through the agreement with Verizon. Customers will have access to more than 1,000 movies per month, including ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ ‘Spider-Man 3,’ and Ratatouille.
Currently, the existing Vongo service offers a greater choice of movies to watch.
With Verizon’s thirst to expand its reach into mass market media, the Starz agreement is the imprint Verizon needs to gain further access to home entertainment.
Verizon’s Director of Programming has said the deal, “is a major thrust of extending our brand.”
Starz has agreements with Disney and Sony Studios to offer films through their online service.
In March of 2007, Liberty filed suit against Disney to prevent it from offering their films through ITunes, a unit of Apple, while the same films were offered through Starz or Vongo.
Starz offers 16 movie channels including Starz and Encore with 30 million viewers between the two.
Starz advanced services includes Starz On Demand, Starz Play and Vongo.
Verizon headquartered in New York City is a blue chip Dow Industrial 30 company with nearly a quarter million employees in its workforce.
Verizon is a dominant leader in providing broadband and wireless communications to business, government and global serves. In 2007, the company achieved $93 billion in revenue.
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