Lionsgate to ‘Keep Our Head Down,’ Not Pursue M&A: CEO

The “big deals” with Amazon buying MGM and with WarnerMedia/Discovery are a “resounding affirmation” of streaming and “about the value of content” and of brands, said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer on a quarterly call Thursday. Lionsgate/Starz won’t play in streaming mergers and acquisitions because “we've got a benefit in terms of lack of disruption here at the company,” he said: “The key thing that we're going to do is keep our head down, and just keep executing on our plan.” Starz grew subscribers by 23% year over year, finishing fiscal Q4 ended March 31 with 29.5 million global accounts, said Feltheimer. Starz growth for the year took Lionsgate “past the digital inflection point of more over-the-top than linear subscribers,” he said. Lionsgate surpassed the “milestone” of 10 million U.S. streaming subs, he said. Lionsgate sees the streaming industry as “unfolding” into separate “broad-based” advertising-supported VOD and premium VOD tiers of services, said Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch. “The second tier is where we sit, which is in that premium service as a very edgy, non-ad-supported, really tailored service.”