SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Reflecting strong recent gains in Starz's programming slate, distribution footprint and subscriber acquisition, global content leader Lionsgate today announced that Jeffrey A. Hirsch has signed a new long-term deal as President and Chief Executive Officer of STARZ. As CEO, Hirsch will shape the overall business and programming strategy for Starz and oversee the continued evolution and expansion of the STARZ premium subscription platform around the world.

Hirsch joined Starz four years ago, was promoted to COO in 2016 and has been running the network for nearly a year. Under his leadership, Starz increased its overall domestic subscriber base from 23.5 million to 24.7 million last year and continued the rapid growth of one of the industry's most successful domestic OTT businesses. Starz already has more than 4.4 million domestic OTT subscribers with successful launches during the last year on Apple, Hulu, Roku, YouTube TV and an array of other platforms.

Hirsch has shepherded the launch of the STARZ app in the U.S. and orchestrated STARZPLAY's rapid expansion into nearly 50 countries in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa as well as Canada, making STARZ one of the world's leading pure-play subscription platforms. Already ahead of schedule, Starz plans to continue its rapid international growth and, as previously announced, expects to have as many as 15-20 million international subscribers by 2025.

Hirsch has played a key leadership role at Starz since joining the company in July 2015 as President of Global Marketing and Product Development. Since Lionsgate's acquisition of Starz in December 2016, Hirsch has played a lead role in integrating Starz into the Lionsgate family and exploring opportunities for the two companies' combined suite of OTT offerings.

Prior to joining Starz, Hirsch served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Residential Services at Time Warner Cable.

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