The rebranding of Starzplay to Lionsgate+ was suddenly followed by the announcement that the streaming service would disappear in Germany and other countries. That’s behind it.
Starzplay became Lionsgate+ and was set to grow bigger. Instead, the streaming service will disappear entirely from the German market. (Source: © Lionsgate)
- The streaming service Starzplay was recently renamed Lionsgate+.
- Now, surprisingly, it has been announced that the service will be removed from the German market.
- The reason for the withdrawal is probably the provider’s high costs and poor business figures.
Lionsgate+ will exit the German market again before the majority of the audience has even discovered the service as an independent offering on the entertainment map.
After all, the streaming service Starzplay, the foreign branch of the US cable provider Starz, was recently renamed Lionsgate+ and was in the best plus company thanks to Disney+, Discovery+ and Paramount+. They also wanted to cooperate with the German pay TV and streaming provider Sky and expand the offer.
The predecessor offer Starzplay was known to the local audience mainly as a bookable channel on Amazon Prime Video, where original US productions such as “Becoming Elizabeth” and “Black Sails” could be seen. With the expansion of the Lionsgate+ service, which can be subscribed to independently, even in-house German content was launched: None other than Jürgen Vogel was to start with the series project “Nights in Paradise” – what will become of it seems unclear at the moment.
According to the current Lionsgate annual report, the reason for the surprising withdrawal from a total of seven markets, which in addition to Germany also include France, the Benelux countries and Japan, is of a strategic nature. In plain language, this probably means that the cost-intensive offer, which was set up on its own, is not selling well enough and that further costs are to be saved.
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