Diamondback Sees Resilient Demand Despite Cautious Guidance<\/a><\/p>\nAdjusted OIBDA was $56 million<\/strong> in the quarter, up more than 100% sequentially, which Macdonald said was due to lower programming amortization, lower advertising marketing, and higher revenue.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Macdonald said Starz ended the quarter with net debt of $589 million<\/strong>, roughly flat versus the third quarter. He reported gross debt of $625 million<\/strong>, including $325 million<\/strong> of 5.5% senior unsecured notes and $300 million<\/strong> of Term Loan A. Cash was $36 million<\/strong>, and the company\u2019s $150 million revolver<\/strong> was undrawn.<\/p>\nLooking ahead, Hirsch and Macdonald characterized 2026 as an inflection year for free cash flow. Management said it expects:<\/p>\n
\n- \n
OTT revenue growth<\/strong> in 2026<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Low single-digit percentage adjusted OIBDA growth<\/strong> versus 2025<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
$80 million to $120 million<\/strong> of positive unlevered free cash flow<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Positive equity<\/strong> free cash flow for the year<\/p>\n<\/li>\n- \n
Year-end leverage of approximately 2.7x<\/strong>, down from 2.9x<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMacdonald said the expected year-over-year improvement in cash flow reflects lower cash content spend<\/strong> in 2026 versus 2025, bringing cash content payments closer to programming amortization on the income statement. He added that Starz has been aligning production spending and payment timing more closely with industry standards following its separation from a larger studio structure. He said content spend is expected to come in \u201cunder about $650 million<\/strong>\u201d next year, with a less \u201cchoppy\u201d P&L cadence and a stronger fourth quarter relative to the first three quarters.<\/p>\nHirsch reiterated Starz\u2019s strategy of focusing on \u201cedgy, premium content for women and underrepresented audiences,\u201d and he outlined a 2026 original programming slate that includes the conclusion of Outlander<\/strong> and Power Book III: Raising Kanan<\/strong>, the premiere of Fightland<\/strong>, the return of Blood of My Blood<\/strong>, and the return of P-Valley<\/strong>.<\/p>\nOperationally, Hirsch said Starz restructured its Canadian business into a licensing revenue stream to prioritize the U.S. market. He also highlighted progress on content ownership, including the production of Fightland<\/strong> as its \u201cfirst wholly owned series.\u201d The company also announced that Sky<\/strong> will join as a co-commission partner for Fightland, which Hirsch said improves unit economics.<\/p>\nOn the call, Hirsch said the company\u2019s content strategy includes \u201cde-aging\u201d its slate while expanding key franchises. He cited the launch of the Outlander prequel Blood of My Blood<\/strong> and said a new Power universe series, Power: Origins<\/strong>, with an 18-episode order<\/strong>, is in production.<\/p>\nIn Q&A, Hirsch said Starz has designed its slate with international revenue in mind and sees demand for its shows in major markets including the U.K., and \u201cover time\u201d in France. He said Lionsgate remains Starz\u2019s international sales partner and will sell Fightland outside Sky markets. Macdonald also noted Starz had $41 million<\/strong> in production loans, which he said related to Fightland.<\/p>\nHirsch said Starz will stop disclosing subscriber figures beginning with the March 2026 quarter, describing the move as part of a shift to prioritize OTT revenue growth, profitability, free cash flow conversion, and deleveraging rather than managing to quarterly subscriber levels.<\/p>\n
Executives also discussed bundling and distribution partnerships. STARZ Networks President Alison Hoffman said the company is focused on being a complementary add-on partner to both broad-based and targeted streamers. She said Starz\u2019s data indicates bundling is expanding total addressable market, driving net new additions, being revenue accretive, and improving retention.<\/p>\n
On pricing, Hirsch said Starz has aimed to remain \u201cunderpriced\u201d relative to broad-based streamers, and he suggested price increases by larger services have created room for Starz to consider its own pricing power, depending on timing and slate.<\/p>\n
Regarding consolidation, Hirsch said Starz sees potential opportunities to scale, particularly involving linear networks with strong brands that lack digital tech capabilities. However, he emphasized a desire to operate around a 2.5x<\/strong> leverage level and said the company would be cautious about deals that would push leverage to materially higher levels. On capital allocation, management said improving cash flow could allow further investment and, over time, potentially shareholder returns.<\/p>\nFinally, Hirsch said Starz is using AI in several areas, including in production to reduce costs\u2014citing its use in Spartacus for some large scenes\u2014as well as internal training and analytics related to acquisition, retention, pricing, scheduling, and churn.<\/p>\n
Starz Entertainment (NASDAQ: STRZ) is a global media and entertainment company that operates premium subscription video services across linear television and digital streaming platforms. The company’s core offering includes the STARZ and STARZ ENCORE linear networks in the United States, alongside its STARZPLAY streaming service, which is available in North America, parts of Europe, Latin America and select Asian markets. Through its multi-platform distribution strategy, Starz delivers a combination of original programming, feature films and licensed series to a broad subscriber base.<\/p>\n
At the heart of Starz Entertainment’s business is its investment in original content production.<\/p>\n
The article “Starz Entertainment Q4 Earnings Call Highlights<\/a>” was originally published by MarketBeat.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source finance.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starz Entertainment logo Starz Entertainment (NASDAQ:STRZ) executives said the company delivered a \u201cstrong quarter\u201d to close fiscal 2025 and outlined a 2026 plan centered on OTT revenue growth, improved cash generation, and lower leverage, while also signaling a shift away from quarterly subscriber disclosures. President and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch said the company exceeded its financial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2303139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[344710,350770,403153,308987,446227,340700],"class_list":["post-2303138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-fourth-quarter","tag-free-cash-flow","tag-jeffrey-hirsch","tag-revenue-growth","tag-scott-macdonald","tag-starz-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Starz-Entertainment-Q4-Earnings-Call-Highlights.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2303138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303140,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303138\/revisions\/2303140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2303139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2303138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2303138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2303138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}