Starz Encore

Early focus on 1960s, 1970s and 1980s movies Encore launched at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 1, 1991, on four cable systems that were operated by Tele-Communications Inc. (both TCI and Liberty Media, both of which jointly owned Encore initially, were controlled by John Malone). The channel debuted with an introduction by founder John Sie, who served as the president of the network from its launch until 1999 and CEO until his retirement in 2004, which was then followed by Encore's first movie telecast, the 1980 comedy film 9 to 5. Encore was the first major U.S. premium channel to debut in almost 11 years, since Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 – at the time of Encore's launch, Cinemax, HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel were its only competitors (Encore was the only upstart premium channel that managed to gain any headway with those services; other premium channels that debuted prior to Encore's launch, such as Spotlight and Home Theater Network, were unable to compete with those four channels and would eventually shut down during the prior decade). Initially, Encore focused on movies released primarily during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with some releases from the 1950s mixed in; the channel was formatted similarly to American Movie Classics at the time, with hosted introductions leading into the movie presentations. Breaks between films on Encore during its early years were quite lively, consisting less of promotions and more of trivia and nostalgia, fitting in with Encore's motto "The Movies of Your Life." The channel even ran an interstitial during breaks within its daytime schedule that informed viewers about programs that were scheduled to air on competing premium channels that evening in prime time. The channel had initially broadcast films from Warner Bros. Pictures (owned by Time Warner, which ironically is the parent company of rival pay services HBO and Cinemax), Columbia Pictures/TriStar Pictures, Orion Pictures, 20th Century Fox, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Paramount Pictures (which also ironically came under ownership of Showtime and The Movie Channel's then-parent company Viacom in 1994), Turner Entertainment, and MGM/United Artists. The channel was formatted as a "mini-pay" service, available to subscribers for a $1 monthly fee. TCI initially offered Encore as a negative option, in which customers were required to notify TCI if they declined to subscribe to the channel full-time after an introductory offer, or TCI would automatically add on a $1 charge to their monthly bill, which would have then increased to $4.95 per month by May 1992. The negative option fee led to lawsuits filed against TCI by ten states, eventually causing the company to back away from utilizing the billing method for the channel. Many other cable providers were reluctant to offer Encore in its early years due to concerns that it would cannibalize subscriptions of other premium services. However, Sie positioned the channel as such that would bolster the growth of what had been a lagging pay television industry, as premium channels had been seeing a steady decline in subscribers overall since the late 1980s. In a 1991 interview with Multichannel News, John Sie said that TCI brought up the Encore network concept as a way to revitalize Showtime, either by launching a new tertiary pay service from scratch, or overhauling the format of Showtime sister network The Movie Channel. Incidentally, TCI made a failed bid to acquire a 50% ownership stake in Showtime in 1989. Encore had increased its subscriber base to an estimated 7 million subscribers nationwide by 1996. On January 1, 1997, Encore launched a new pay service called MoviePlex (originally named "Encore Plex" for its first few months on the air) which replaced a Liberty Media-owned network called INTRO Television, that ran blocks of programming from other cable channels. Until it adopted a separate film schedule on August 1, 2011, MoviePlex originally carried programming blocks from Encore's multiplex channels (which differed from that day's actual schedules for each channel to exclude R-rated movies) on a rotating day-to-day schedule. On June 2, 1997, TCI announced a deal in which it would transfer majority ownership of its Encore Media Group subsidiary to sister company Liberty Media, due in part to the significant profit losses incurred by Starz following that channel's launch – TCI retained a minority 20% ownership interest until its 1999 merger with AT&T Corporation, when Liberty Media assumed full ownership of the Encore Media Group. By May 1998, Encore had a subscriber base of 11.4 million homes with cable or satellite television. Format change with addition of recent movies As the channel aged, it adopted a more conventional presentation style: first in 1998, Encore began to carry two exclusive first-run feature film broadcasts each month, then Encore shifted its focus to hit movies as part of a major rebrand of the channel on May 24, 1999, primarily incorporating recent films, but with notable classics mixed in as well. By this point, Encore advertised itself as guaranteeing to air "a great movie every night", even setting up a special 1-800 number in which a $2.50 refund would be given to unsatisfied subscribers. Encore eventually began to be sold as a hybrid service, offered as either a premium channel or a digital basic network depending on the provider, retaining the uncut and commercial-free nature of its programming. Through this change in distribution, the channel was eventually available in 25 million homes nationwide by September 2005. On November 19, 2009, Liberty Media spun off Starz and Encore into a separate public tracking stock called Liberty Starz. On August 8, 2012, Liberty Media announced that it would spin off Liberty Starz into its own separate, publicly traded company. The spin-off of the subsidiary was completed on January 11, 2013, with Liberty Starz changing its name to Starz Inc. as a result. On April 5, 2016, Encore and its other multiplex channels were rebranded as Starz Encore, unifying the network under the brand umbrella of the channel that Encore ironically spun off in September 1994. With the rebranding, Starz Encore also began to carry reruns of Starz original comedy and drama series within its schedule. On June 30, 2016, Lionsgate agreed to acquire Starz Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash and stock; the acquisition was completed five months later on December 8. ==Channels==