BritBox to Offer Streaming Bundle with Starz to Boost Signups

In a surprising move, Lionsgate’s chief executive announced that BritBox and Starz would be partnered as a streaming bundle in the coming months. The news came as part of Lionsgate’s Q1 2025 financial results call on August 8, 2024, presided over by CEO Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer has been restructuring the company, which is faltering in the streaming wars, first shutting down all streaming service offerings in international territories in 2022, shutting down Starz in the UK and Australia the following year, and finally announcing Lionsgate would divest itself from Starz entirely by the end of 2024.

Starz already bundled itself with Amazon’s MGM+ at the end of last year; this new bundle, meant to juice subscriptions for both services, will be available via the Starz app and, one assumes, as an addition for those who sign up for BritBox. Starz chief Jeffrey Hirsch confirmed the streaming service would create a “very simple and frictionless way for the consumer to put both products together.”

He also suggested this pairing would become the foundation for a larger bundle. Though Hirsh did not say so directly, it seems safe to assume from his statement Lionsgate is (or will be) reaching out to its fellow struggling small-time niche streamers like Acorn TV, Sundance Now, and AMC+ (or MGM+!), hoping they also will see the value of being rolled up with BritBox, who looks to have found solid ground in becoming fully BBC-owned, especially with a new Labour government committed to renewed the British Broadcaster’s charter for another 99 years come 2026.