Verizon First to Offer Starz Entertainment's New 'Starz Play' Broadband Video Service

Verizon First to Offer Starz Entertainment's New 'Starz Play' Broadband Video Service

Companies Also Extend, Expand Current FiOS TV Deal

NEW YORK and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon and Starz Entertainment announced Tuesday (May 27) a comprehensive, multiyear agreement that will bring exclusive hit movies from Starz to Verizon's more than 8.5 million broadband subscribers and the full array of Starz products to Verizon's FiOS TV and FiOS Internet and High Speed Internet (digital subscriber line) customers.

Verizon's broadband customers can now visit www.verizon.net/starzplay to subscribe to Starz Play. Customers can access the service anywhere in the United States to watch live Starz programming and to download and view movies and videos an unlimited number of times at no additional charge. The movies include blockbusters such as "Ratatouille," "Spider-Man(TM)3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

(NOTE: Screen shots of the Starz Play service are available for download at http://verizon.wieck.com/.)

The two companies also announced an extension and expansion of their current FiOS TV affiliation agreement, which was signed in April 2005. The new agreement secures delivery of all 16 Starz(R), Encore(R) and MoviePlex(R) premium commercial-free movie channels, the company's HD channels, and the associated Starz Entertainment subscription VOD offerings: Starz On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore On Demand and Encore HD On Demand.

All Starz HD offerings are presented in Dolby(R) Digital 5.1 surround sound, a powerful audio format that provides crystal-clear digital surround sound that brings entertainment to life.

Features of Starz Play

Starz Play is a subscription-based, video download service for delivering movies and other video content over the Internet. It offers a wide variety of first-run hit movies, independent films and well-known classics, in addition to extreme sports, concerts, anime, westerns and original programming. Users of other broadband services can subscribe to the service with credit card billing.

   Features of the service include:   -- Unlimited viewing of downloaded movies for as long as the user's Starz      Play membership is valid and the title is available on the service.      Movies are typically available at least four months at a time and often      for more than a year.   -- Live, streaming East Coast feed of the premium Starz TV channel.   -- Catalog of more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 total monthly video      selections.  Up to 30 new titles are added each Friday.   -- State-of-the-art user interface with a Watch Now feature that allows      viewing of a movie or video while it continues downloading in the      background, and search functionality by title, actor, director,      category, format, rating and language.   -- Password-protected parental controls with security settings for PG-13      or R-rated titles.   -- Just for You feature that recommends new titles based on users' viewing      history.   -- Top Picks menu featuring daily list of titles most frequently      downloaded by other users.    

In 2008, Starz Play will offer many blockbuster movies including "Spider-Man(TM) 3," "Ratatouille," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Superbad," "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," "No Country for Old Men," "Wild Hogs," "Mad Money" and "Enchanted." Starz Play will also feature new original content from Starz including the recently announced series "Crash," based on the Academy Award -winning film and new original comedic series "Head Case" and "Hollywood Residential."

The Starz Play service will be carried to Verizon broadband customers over the company's world-class broadband networks. Verizon High Speed Internet service is delivered on a dedicated line from Verizon's central office to customers' homes, with available downstream connection speeds of up to 7 Megabits per second (Mbps). FiOS Internet is delivered over the nation's most advanced fiber optic network straight to customers homes with downstream connection speeds ranging from up to 5 Mbps to up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds as high as up to 20 Mbps.

   Dolby is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories.    About Starz Entertainment  

Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz(R) and Encore(R) brands with approximately 16.8 million and 31.4 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Starz On Demand, Starz Play and Vongo(R). Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Entertainment Group (NASDAQ:LMDIA) (NASDAQ:LMDIB) , a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) , headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 67 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employed a diverse workforce of approximately 232,000 as of the end of the first quarter 2008 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

Source: Verizon

CONTACT: Christy Reap of Verizon, +1-202-515-2443, creap@verizon.com; or
Eric Becker of Starz Entertainment, +1-720-852-4065, eric.becker@starz.com

Web site: http://www.verizon.com/
http://www.starz.com/
http://www.verizon.net/starzplay

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html

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Profile: International Entertainment