Lionsgate Misses Revenue and Profit Targets for Q4, But Streams Highlights as Subscriber Level Reaches 35.8M

Thursday’s release convinced Lionsgate in its otherwise low fiscal quarterly earnings report released Thursday that showed earnings and revenue below Wall Street’s expectations.

Earnings were $930 million at 6 cents per share for the period ended March 31. Analysts demanded $961 million and 8 cents a share of this key metric.

The company added 3 million streaming subscribers, down 4.4 million from 35.8 million subscribers during this period, far exceeding analysts’ consensus expectations.

In total, 12.8 million subscribers are owned by the StarzPlay International consortium, the rest is owned by Starz. While Starz’s subscriber levels increased by 47% year on year, StarzPlay International nearly doubled that figure.

Premium network brand Starz, which was acquired by Lionsgate in 2016, has been in talks in recent months to sell shares or potentially take over from a completely new owner. Names involved in the discussions are Roku, Vivendi and private investment giant Apollo.

Shares of Lionsgate, which were trading at their lowest level since the last weeks of 2020, dropped another 4% on the trading day to close at $10.57. They went back to after-hours trading after the company said it was nearing the end of a Starz transaction, such as selling a key stake rather than transferring the subsidiary.

In its Official Income statement, CEO John Felheimer announced a “significant reduction” in the company’s streaming operations. Starz has accelerated the release of originals, many of which are now made by Lionsgate, in an effort to make streaming services more permanent and to improve the overall network economy.

Felheimer said the fiscal year was “one of the best years to create our content while continuing to create significant long-term value.”