Premium channel Starz added about 200,000 new subscribers to its premium service in the second quarter, fueled in part by its new Starz app released in the spring.
Starz unveiled it new app in April, allowing consumers to purchase the premium service as a standalone offering while allowing existing MVPD subscribers to access new features such as the ability to download shows to watch later, through the authenticated service.
Starz ended the second quarter with 24.2 million subscribers, a new record. On a conference call late Thursday with analysts, CEO Chris Albrecht said that Starz recently revamped app has been a factor in the increases, but that it is still early in the game.
“This is the first inning of this,” Albrecht said on the call. “It's not even the first, it's half of the first inning on this stuff and we're learning a lot. We're going to be leaning into it more. We've been pragmatic and we've been disciplined, but the results that we've seen so far show us that we're certainly making the right decisions around these opportunities.”
