BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.,
Aug. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/
-- Starz CEO Chris Albrecht
announced today that Michael
Thornton has been promoted to the newly created position of
Chief Revenue Officer at Starz. He will be responsible for
the network sales and affiliate marketing group and oversee the
Starz distribution businesses comprised of Anchor Bay
Entertainment, Starz Worldwide Distribution and Starz Digital
Media. Based in the company's Englewood, Colo. offices, Thornton will report
to Starz President Glenn
Curtis.
(Logo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080522/LATH063LOGO-b)
In making this appointment, Albrecht stated, "We are very
pleased that Michael will be assuming the new role of Chief Revenue
Officer. In the rapidly changing media business landscape, it
is important for Starz to unite together the revenue businesses of
affiliate sales (STARZ/ENCORE/MOVIEPLEX) and Starz Distribution
under one senior executive. In his short time at Starz,
Michael's wide-ranging talents and contributions to the businesses
have been incredibly valuable. Combined with the excellent
senior management and sales teams at Starz, we are confident in
Michael's ability to move the Starz business forward."
Starz also announced Ed Huguez
will step down as President of Affiliate Distribution and will stay
with the company as an advisor through the first quarter of
2014.
Albrecht added, "During his tenure, Ed has been instrumental in
increasing the value of the networks, the channels' distribution
and revenue. We thank him for his hard work and dedication to
the company and are grateful for his help during the
transition."
Thornton previously served as Executive Vice President,
Acquisitions, Business and Legal Affairs, overseeing programming
acquisitions for the seventeen Starz channels and on-demand/online
offerings. In addition, he was responsible for managing the
strategic direction of business and legal affairs related to the
acquisition of programming content as well as business and legal
affairs for distribution of the Starz companies' content with
online/broadband distributors, transactional VOD/EST, and worldwide
syndication of proprietary STARZ Original series and other Starz
proprietary/licensed content.
Prior to joining Starz in 2011, Thornton served in several
senior executive positions with programming and legal
responsibilities during his career, and most recently at Disney/ABC
Domestic Television as executive vice president, business and legal
affairs since 2005. Thornton oversaw multi-platform strategy and
negotiations for post-theatrical distribution of The Walt Disney
Studios' film output and the post-network distribution of ABC
Studios' television product. Prior to that, Thornton was Senior
Vice President, Programming Acquisitions for DIRECTV since 1999
where he led programming strategy, including the acquisition of all
on-air acquired and original programming and negotiated
successfully numerous network, local broadcast station, sports
subscription, and one-off event deals.
Thornton is a graduate of Dartmouth
College, UCLA School of Law, and the Anderson Graduate
School of Management, also at UCLA.
About Starz
Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) is a leading
integrated global media and entertainment company with operating
units that provide premium subscription video programming on
domestic U.S. pay television channels (Starz Networks), global
content distribution (Starz Distribution) and animated television
and movie production (Starz Animation), www.starz.com.
Starz Networks is a leading provider of premium subscription
video programming through the flagship STARZ® and
ENCORE® pay TV networks which showcase premium original
programming and movies to U.S. multichannel video distributors,
including cable operators, satellite television providers, and
telecommunications companies. As of June 30, 2013, STARZ and ENCORE serve a combined
56.9 million subscribers, including 21.8 million at STARZ, and 35.1
million at ENCORE, making them the largest pair of premium flagship
channels in the U.S. STARZ® and
ENCORE®, along with Starz Networks' third network
MOVIEPLEX®, air more than 1,000 movies monthly
across 17 linear networks, complemented by On Demand and
authenticated online offerings through STARZ PLAY, ENCORE PLAY, and
MOVIEPLEX PLAY. Starz Distribution develops, produces and acquires
entertainment content, distributing it to consumers globally on
DVD, digital formats and traditional television. Starz
Distribution's home video, digital media and worldwide distribution
business units distribute original programming content produced by
Starz, as well as entertainment content for itself and third
parties. Starz Animation produces animated TV and movie
content for studios, networks, distributors and audiences
worldwide.
Contact:
Eric Becker
Starz
(720) 852-4065
eric.becker@starz.com
SOURCE Starz