Starz head of digital products Scott Barton on the network's OTT strategy
Starz, the premium cable channel has had an array of different original successes over the years including the short-lived Boss and Spartacus. The Colorado-based entertainment company has recently made some big investments in OTT and digital technology that's helping to continue to grow their brand in the highly competitive world of premium content that now includes Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.
To understand these investments Found Remote interviewed Scott Barton, Senior Vice President of Branded Digital Content and Products for Starz. Starz has recently launched on the Amazon Fire including making a live feed available on Mac/PC.
Found Remote: What's STARZ OTT strategy? What platforms are you on and why?
Scott Barton: Starz’ long-held belief is that they best way for us to grow the business is to work in partnership with our core multichannel distributors. With our combination of exclusive original programming – including “Power,” “Outlander,” “Black Sails,” and more – and exclusive first-run movies, our message to consumers and our distributors is that there is no better value proposition in the marketplace today.
While we will be closely watching the efforts of HBO and SHOWTIME as they experiment outside of the traditional MVPD space, the continued focus at Starz is to look at new ways to leverage IP-based platforms and extend the STARZ premium experience for the benefit of our subscribers and core distributors alike.
STARZ PLAY - along with its companion ENCORE PLAY & MOVIEPLEX PLAY authenticated services - is available on a wide range of devices and platforms including iOS (iPhone, iPad), Android devices, PCs/Macs, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Chromecast.
We are regularly adding new technologies, features, devices and platforms. In fact, we just launched on Amazon Fire TV and the Fire TV stick for STARZ PLAY and added a live feed of the Starz channel to PC/Mac. Look for several additional TV-based devices in the near future.
FR: What have been some of the results so far? Is it affecting the business?
SB: While we aren’t sharing any specific data at this point, I can say we continue to see dramatic growth in overall usage. In fact, STARZ PLAY users are proving to be substantially more engaged than your typical STARZ, linear viewer, with usage that overindexes specifically when it comes to consumption of our STARZ Original series programming.
Our larger efforts have been successful as STARZ is now the #2 flagship premium brand in the United States in terms of subscribers behind HBO and has grown faster than all of its peers in the premium space since CEO Chris Albrecht joined the company in 2010.
FR: As the TV industry changes how is STARZ staying ahead?
SB: Starz has accelerated its growth these past five years with a much greater emphasis on investing in quality, exclusive original programming with a special emphasis on super-serving those who are underserved on traditional television - - especially women and African-Americans.
With that said, our most popular originals – including “Power,” “Outlander,” and “Black Sails,” with “Blunt Talk” and “Ash vs Evil Dead” coming later this year – and great assortment of new, blockbuster and quality library movies have wide appeal to all audiences.
Popular originals that are only available on STARZ are complemented beautifully by extending the subscription and consumption options to as many platforms and services as we can.
It’s all about increasing the value of that underlying subscription and our PLAY services is a big driver. PLAY usage clearly fosters loyalty and helps create brand evangelists for our services.
FR: What are the newest platforms you can access STARZ content on?
SB: Fire TV and the Fire TV stick are our most recent launches, with Google Chromecast & Xbox One before that. We anticipate adding several new platforms and devices for PLAY support later this year.
FR: What's your role and how did you get to STARZ?
SB: My role is fairly straightforward…it’s to enhance and evolve our programming and products on digital platforms (STARZ ON DEMAND, STARZ PLAY, Starz.com) that results in increased engagement, viewership and ultimately adds value to the overall Starz subscription. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. Also applies to the respective ENCORE and MOVIEPLEX offerings.
I’ve always been fascinated with video and the concept of timeshifted viewing. I joined the company in 2002 and early on, Starz allowed me the opportunity to help develop and implement the early strategy and subsequent launches of its subscription VOD (SVOD), download, and IP streaming products.
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