Starz Entertainment Group, Variety Team to Bring Film News to Millions of Homes

Starz Entertainment Group, Variety Team to Bring Film News to Millions of Homes

Entertainment 'Bible's' Unmatched News, Stats and Box Office Charts Will be Available on the Starz Channel and Website

Deal Follows Announcement That SEG Will Sponsor Variety's Awards Season Screening Series

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Subscribers to Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) premium cable channels will get access to the latest news from the motion picture industry thanks to a deal announced today between SEG and Variety, the "Bible" of the entertainment business.

In addition, SEG signed on to sponsor Variety's annual Screening Series in Los Angeles. The 2005 series features an extraordinary lineup of 38 films widely expected to be in the awards season mix. SEG will sponsor several of the screenings, including, "Rent," "Capote," "The Squid and The Whale," "A History of Violence," "Memoirs of a Geisha," "The Family Stone," "Brokeback Mountain," "Crash," "King Kong," "Transamerica," "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," "Bee Season" and "Good Night and Good Luck."

Each screening showcases an abundance of talent from in front of as well as behind the camera on each film. SEG will capture some of this year's Q & As with such honored guests as Ang Lee ("Brokeback Mountain"), Jason Schwartzman ("Shopgirl") and writer Steve Conrad ("The Weatherman") to name a few.

The raw footage from these conversations will be made into short programs and special features that will air on Starz and on www.starz.com. Variety's 2005 Screening Series which kicked off in September and will run through December, is held at three state-of-the-art theaters; Pacific's Arclight in Hollywood, the newly refurbished Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

"Variety is a great match for us," said David Charmatz, senior vice president, channel management, SEG. "They've got the best movie news and information and we've got the best movies. This agreement reinforces SEG's commitment to be the No. 1 resource for hit movies and movie information and to solidify our presence in the Hollywood community. We look forward to a long partnership."

SEG will broadcast Variety's content as interstitial features, utilizing various on-air graphics. Content to be used includes headlines, box office, movie news, DVD and videocassette sales and rental information and all other content of interest to movie lovers.

"We're excited about SEG's plans to broadcast our content to their more than 14 million Starz subscribers and many more visitors to www.starz.com," said Paulo Lemgruber, general manager, Variety.com. "We are already the film news source of record within the entertainment industry and are looking to this partnership to broaden the reach of our content to a national audience of movie buffs."

"These intimate conversations provide us with unique, exclusive footage that we will use on our air, on the www.starz.com Website and to produce even larger features that will be particularly relevant during the upcoming awards seasons," Charmatz said.

About Variety

The Variety group, Daily Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, Weekly Variety, VLife, Variety China, and Variety.com, are all owned by Reed Business Information (RBI), a member of the Reed Elsevier plc group and a leading U.S. provider of business information to 16 vertical markets, including entertainment, manufacturing and retail. RBI's content rich portfolio encompasses more than 140 Web sites as well as Publishers Weekly, Design News and 152 other market-leading business-to-business magazines.

About Starz Entertainment Group

Starz Entertainment Group LLC (SEG) is the largest provider of premium movie services in the United States with approximately 181 million pay units. SEG offerings include the Starz Encore Movie Pack with 13 digital movie channels and more than 750 movies per month, Starz HDTV, Starz On Demand, and Starz Ticket, an on-demand premium Internet movie subscription service available on the broadband platform. Starz Entertainment Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, www.starz.com.

Contacts:

Chelsye J. Burrows
Starz Entertainment Group
720.852.5838
Chelsye.burrows@starz.com

Jonathan Taylor
The Lippin Group
323.965.1990
jtaylor@lippingroup.com

Jennifer Smith
VARIETY
323.965.2058
smith@reedbusines.com

Source: Starz Entertainment Group

CONTACT: Chelsye J. Burrows, of Starz Entertainment Group,
+1-720-852-5838, Chelsye.burrows@starz.com; or Jonathan Taylor, of The Lippin
Group, +1-323-965-1990, jtaylor@lippingroup.com, for Starz Entertainment
Group; or Jennifer Smith, of VARIETY, +1-323-965-2058, smith@reedbusines.com

Web site: http://www.starz.com/

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