Seeing Starz! in the Northeast

By David J. Foster

Staff Writer

Northeast Philadelphia cable junkies for three years have had a rough ride. They had all the premiums channels: HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, even the Movie Channel. But they missed Oscar winners like Apollo 13 and Babe, and box- office smashes The Rock and Mr. Holland's Opus.

In fact, the missed most of the films released by Universal (The Nutty Professor, 12 Monkeys), Miramax (Pulp Fiction, The Crow), Touchstone/Hollywood (Jack, Mr. Wrong), and New Line (Last Man Standing, Island of Dr. Moreau).

The pay cable rights to those and more belonged to the Encore Media Group (EMG), owner of Starz!, the newest premium cable network to enter the pay-cable arena. This week, Comcast Cable's Sneak Peek channel is offering a sample of the Starz! staple, showing The Frighteners, Casper, Happy Gilmore, Emma, Sgt. Bilko, and others, all Starz! exclusives.

On October 1, the freebie ends and >Starz!> kicks off for real at an a la carte price of $11.95 (Comcast is offering introductory discounts). It will replace the defunct sports and movie channel Prism.

The Starz! October lineup includes >The Preacher's Wife>, >Bulletproof>, Whoopi Goldberg in >The Associate>, and Jackie Chan's >Supercop>. Debuting in November: Mel Gibson in Ron Howard's >Ransom>.

Born in 1991, two decades after Home Box Office perfected the premium movie channel, EMG was an infant in a maturing industry. To succeed against HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and the Movie Channel, John Sie, EMG chairman, president, and CEO, pinned his survival to offering hot movies unavailable from anyone but him.

With HBO fragmenting into sitcoms, comedy hours, and sports, Sie saw an opening.

Sie began with Encore, promoted as home of the "best" movies from the '60s, '70s, and '80s. That's now been updated to include the '90s. Encore worked, in part, because it was one of the least pricey premium channels available.

To complete effectively, Sie needed something bigger.

So as cable networks reached the end of longterm studio contracts, Sie intervened even better offers.

Universal was the first big bite. It gave EMG Apollo 13, a film Sie's PR machine aggressively hawked. Then came Hollywood and Touchstone, Disney's adult production arm, and Miramax, which brought Pulp Fiction and The Crow.

"These are longterm output deals to make sure we have the best product line out there," said Marc McCarthy, EMG Director of Communication.

Starz! debuted in 1994 and was dedicated to playing flashy first-run exclusives. Their success, McCarthy theorizes, can be seen in how Showtime and HBO are cranking up production on homegrown features and filler to supplement schedules missing The Nutty Professor, Phenomenon, and Flipper.

"Creating original programming isn't necessarily bad," McCarthy said. "We do it. But we made the decision to put on the best movies we could, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (We've made) Starz! a movie lovers dependable destination.

"Put Starz! and HBO in a lineup and you have 80 percent of all of Hollywood's output coming to the viewer."

Anticipating an explosion in channel space when digital TV takes holds, EMG operates 11 networks, making it the largest provider of premium movie channels in the United States.

EMG operates Thematic Multiplex premium channels, genre- specific channels like Love Stories, Westerns, and Mystery that deliver what their designations promise.

While you wait for their Philadelphia debut, you can busy yourself with Seven, the fantasy Dragonheart, the critically acclaimed Trainspotting, and Hugh Grant's The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain.

You won't see them anywhere but on Starz!