Starz, a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), has a lot to celebrate following the Labor Day weekend, during which a new weekly viewership record was set on the STARZ App, with minutes watched up 91%, 31% more subscribers viewing, and customer engagement 12% above the previous high. This increased viewership was driven by the highly-anticipated series premiere of “Power Book II: Ghost,” the first new series in the “Power” Universe from executive producers Courtney A. Kemp and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Kemp also serves as creator and showrunner on the series.
The premiere of “Power Book II: Ghost” on Sunday delivered outsized performance on the Starz App in the first week after the premiere, driving subscriber acquisition up 42% in addition to viewership that was 36% higher than the final season premiere of the original series, “Power” last summer. The premiere of “Power Book II: Ghost” was also the top performing series across the Starzplay International streaming platform in several markets including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Brazil. Starzplay is now the official home worldwide of the “Power” Universe.
STARZ ratings on Sunday, September 6 were up notably compared to the previous four weeks with a 78% lift in Total Day and 156% lift in Primetime and there was significant growth across OTT platforms in addition to the App. As of the end of last quarter Starz had 7.4M OTT subscribers domestically.
“Power Book II: Ghost” dominated social media on premiere night ranking #1 most social premium cable series AND #1 most social series on broadcast/cable/syndicated networks across all live/new primetime episodes. “Ghost” also trended on Twitter that night.
