Starz Appoints Jeffrey Hirsch Chief Operating Officer

David Weil Elevated to Chief Legal Officer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) announced today the appointment of Jeffrey Hirsch as Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately. In addition to Hirsch’s appointment, Starz announced the elevation of David Weil to Chief Legal Officer, with expanded duties including oversight of Human Resources. Hirsch and Weil will continue to report to CEO Chris Albrecht.

Albrecht remarked, "We are transforming STARZ into a more innovative global entertainment brand. Jeff’s talent and experience will help us accelerate the transformation that began five years ago. We have made great progress in our programming, brands, subscribers and shareholder value, and the organization is focused with an eye to the future.”

Hirsch said, “I am excited to continue to drive innovation around our award-winning programming to meet the needs of our growing fandoms and ultimately return more value to our shareholders.”

In his role as Chief Operating Officer, Hirsch will oversee Affiliate Sales, Marketing, Programming Operations and Research, Starz Distribution, and Technology and Product Development. Hirsch has played a key leadership role at Starz since joining in July 2015 as President of Global Marketing and Product Development. He oversees development of new Starz products and services for the company, including the launch of the new STARZ app, the STARZ network rebrand and the repositioning of the STARZ ENCORE suite of services.

Hirsch joined Starz in 2015 after serving most recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Residential Services at Time Warner Cable. In this senior executive role since 2011, Hirsch was responsible for all Time Warner Cable corporate marketing activities to the company’s residential customers. Hirsch first joined Time Warner Cable in 1999 and served in various executive roles including responsibilities in strategic product development for the Time Warner Cable iPad app, and serving as President for Residential Services in the Time Warner Cable New York City, Los Angeles and Rochester, NY regions. Prior to that, Hirsch’s past experiences included stints at NYNEX Corporation in product bundling and McCann-Erickson in advertising.

Hirsch was recognized in 2012 as the sole recipient of the Vanguard Award for Young Leadership and twice ranked by Forbes for his executive talents and influence in marketing and social media. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters of Business Administration from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.

Prior to his elevation to Chief Legal Officer, David Weil was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Starz. He is an accomplished senior entertainment industry executive, with 10 years experience as CEO of Walden Media/Bristol Bay Productions, where he oversaw all aspects of the company’s operations, including strategic planning, production, marketing and outreach, finance, legal and business affairs. Prior to that, he was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers for 25 years, where he focused on the creation, operation and financing of entertainment and media companies.

Weil graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science and holds an M.A. in Politics and International Relations from Brandeis University. He received his Juris Doctorate at Georgetown Law School.

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 networks (Starz Networks) and global content distribution (Starz Distribution), www.starz.com. The Starz Networks operating unit is home to the flagship STARZ® brand with 24.0 million subscribers in the United States as of March 31, 2016, with the STARZ ENCORESM network at 32.4 million subscribers. Through STARZ, the company provides high quality, entertaining premium subscription video programming with 17 premium pay TV channels and associated on-demand and online services. STARZ is sold through U.S. multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, telecommunications companies, and other online and digital platforms. Starz offers subscribers more than 5,000 distinct premium television episodes and feature films every year and up to 1,500 every month, including STARZ Original series, first-run movies and other popular movie and television programming. The Starz Distribution operating unit is home to the Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Digital, and Starz Worldwide Distribution divisions. In addition to STARZ Original series, Starz Distribution develops, produces and acquires movies, television and other entertainment content for worldwide home video, digital, and television licensing and sales.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160621006424/en/

Starz
Theano Apostolou, 424-204-4052
[email protected]
or
Eric Becker, 303-638-3469
[email protected]

Source: Starz

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