Starz, YouTube Renew TV Distribution Deal

Starz and YouTube have renewed their distribution partnership with a new multiyear deal that promises more bundling opportunities.

Starz is the U.S. cable and streaming brand behind the Outlander and Power franchises, as well as recently debuted Three Women and the thriller Sweetpea. 

“We are excited to deepen our partnership with YouTube TV, the fastest-growing pay TV distributor. This partnership further enhances our ability to deliver Starz’s extensive collection of premium programming to broader audiences at an exceptional value,” Alison Hoffman, Starz Networks president, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Terms of the new multiyear deal were not disclosed, but Starz first launched on YouTube TV in 2018 and is also available directly on the Google platform’s Primetime Channels that debuted two years ago.  Besides being able to bundle Starz with Max, Paramount+ and Showtime, Starz can also be packaged with MGM+ on YouTube TV for subscription savings. Starz is also bundled with BritBox on Starz.com.

Bundling has become an increasingly go-to option for media giants as they look to bolster revenues from their cable and streaming platforms after years of over-spending on content. The distribution deal extension for Starz also comes as YouTube and its TV app have overtaken Netflix and other streaming rivals in  Nielsen’s monthly rankings of TV media distributors.

According to the Nielsen Gauge, viewing of YouTube on TV sets accounted for 10.6 percent of viewing on connected devices in August, compared to 7.9 percent for Netflix, and 3.1 percent for Prime Video (everyone else followed with less than 3 percent).

YouTube TV as a subscription streaming service offers around 100 live and on-demand TV channels and currently has over 8 million subscribers.