EXCLUSIVE: Starz CEO Chris Albrecht will depart next month after a decade at the company. Albrecht’s decision to step down comes two years after Starz’s acquisition by Lionsgate was completed amid the continued integration of the two companies.
For the time being, Starz will move forward under COO Jeffrey Hirsch and the current leadership team, including President of Programming Carmi Zlotnik, working closely with Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer.
Albrecht is leaving on a high note. Starz was the brightest spot on Lionsgate’s most recent quarterly earnings report in November, posting its best revenue growth in more than 10 years. Since Albrecht joined Starz as CEO in January 2010, the pay cable networks has achieved a 48% increase in subscribers, from 17 million to 25.1 million currently.
The Starz OTT business, launched by Albrecht in 2016, has grown to more than 3 million subscribers with the company becoming OTT partner to Amazon, Hulu, Google and others, while the Starz App has been a Top 5 streaming service in the U.S., with growth of more than 62% year-over-year.
