Starz's streaming revenue rose 1.7% on higher prices as linear TV kept shrinking

Starz said on October 29, 2026, that revenue from its streaming service, which it reports as OTT revenue, rose 1.7% from a year earlier to $226.6 million in the three months to September 30. In its quarterly report, the premium TV company attributed the increase to subscription price increases. Total revenue edged up to $322.4 million from $320.9 million.

The line Starz reports as linear and other revenue fell to $95.8 million from $98.1 million. Starz said linear revenue dropped with “the continued decline in traditional linear households,” while distribution and other revenue rose, helped by international sales of the first season of its series Fightland and by the switch of its Canadian operations to a content licensing relationship.

A turn in streaming revenue

The streaming line has moved from decline to modest growth over the past year. OTT revenue fell 12.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 6.4% in the first quarter of 2026, then grew slightly in the second quarter, which Starz described as positive year-over-year growth, and by $3.8 million in the third (our calculations from Starz's releases). Part of the earlier drop came from Canada: Starz said the fall in its networks revenue over the first nine months of 2026 included an $8.4 million decline in OTT services, mainly related to the Canadian operations it moved to a content licensing relationship in the fourth quarter of 2025.

What the releases no longer show is how many people pay. In its results for the third and fourth quarters of 2025, Starz gave subscriber counts: 12.3 million U.S. OTT subscribers at the end of September 2025 and 12.7 million at the end of the year, which it called an all-time high. Its releases for the first three quarters of 2026 give none. Starz attributes this quarter's growth to price increases, but without subscriber figures its releases do not show whether the number of paying customers rose or fell.

Profit and programming

Adjusted OIBDA, a non-GAAP profit measure that Starz uses among others to evaluate the business, more than doubled to $44.2 million from $21.8 million a year earlier, and the operating loss narrowed to $21.2 million from $34.8 million. Chief executive Jeffrey Hirsch said: “Our portfolio approach to programming is driving a more durable revenue base, and we are just beginning to unlock the financial upside of increased ownership.”

Two original series premiered in the quarter, according to Starz's quarterly report: the first season of Fightland on July 31 and the second season of Blood of My Blood on September 25. A year earlier, the first season of Blood of My Blood premiered on August 8, 2025. Earlier this year, the eighth season of Outlander premiered on March 6.

The year's targets

Starz, which has been a separate listed company since Lionsgate split its studio business from the Starz networks business on May 6, 2025, kept all its 2026 targets. It expects positive year-over-year growth in OTT revenue, mid-single-digit growth in adjusted OIBDA, unlevered free cash flow of $100 million to $120 million and a leverage ratio of about 2.7 times adjusted OIBDA at the end of the year. It also repeated its outlook of a 20% adjusted OIBDA margin for the second half of 2027.

The streaming target leaves work for the last quarter. Over the first nine months of 2026, OTT revenue was $659.0 million, 1.6% below the $669.4 million of a year earlier (our calculation). For the full year to show growth, the fourth quarter has to beat last year's $210.3 million by more than that gap.