Further movement on the American media market. The media group MGM will purchase the shares of the two other founding partners of the pay-TV channel Epix, Lionsgate and Paramount, for 1.03 billion US dollars. Deadline reports that the purchase is subject to the approval of the regulatory bodies.
The termination of the collaboration between the three Epix founders seemed inevitable after Lionsgate acquired pay-TV competitor Starz for $4.4 billion. Paramount’s parent company, Viacom, on the other hand, has been undergoing a fundamental restructuring under new management since the beginning of the year (TV Wunschliste reported) and is expected to use the proceeds from the sale to trigger older loans. Although Lionsgate and Paramount will fulfil their previous contracts to supply Epix (“well into the next decade”), it is questionable whether they will not strengthen their own media conglomerates in the long term. In addition, streaming services also offer a possible point of sale for the rights in the pay-TV window.
Previously, Viacom held 49.8 percent of Epix, Lionsgate 31.2 percent and MGM was a minority shareholder. Epix is clearly the smallest of the four major US pay TV providers – HBO, Showtime, Starz and Epix – while HBO is by far the largest. Showtime and Starz compete for second place in terms of the number of subscribers.
Epix was founded in 2009 by the three partners after Showtime allowed the contracts for the purchase of pay-TV rights to the film output of the three associated film studios to expire – at the time Showtime wanted to clear the budget for an expansion of its own series production.
A planned rapid entry of Epix into series in-house productions then silted up, and only last year were “Berlin Station” and “Graves”. In-house productions are regarded as an important unique selling point of American pay-TV stations in order to persuade viewers to subscribe.