Verizon First to Offer Starz Entertainment's New 'Starz Play' Broadband Video Service

May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon and Starz Entertainment announced Tuesday (May 27) a comprehensive, multiyear agreement that will bring exclusive hit movies from Starz to Verizon's more than 8.5 million broadband subscribers and the full array of Starz products to Verizon's FiOS TV and FiOS Internet and High Speed Internet (digital subscriber line) customers.

Verizon's broadband customers can now visit www.verizon.net/starzplay to subscribe to Starz Play. Customers can access the service anywhere in the United States to watch live Starz programming and to download and view movies and videos an unlimited number of times at no additional charge. The movies include blockbusters such as "Ratatouille," "Spider-Man3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

The two companies also announced an extension and expansion of their current FiOS TV affiliation agreement, which was signed in April 2005. The new agreement secures delivery of all 16 Starz, Encore and MoviePlex premium commercial-free movie channels, the company's HD channels, and the associated Starz Entertainment subscription VOD offerings: Starz On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore On Demand and Encore HD On Demand.

All Starz HD offerings are presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, a powerful audio format that provides crystal-clear digital surround sound that brings entertainment to life.

Features of Starz Play
Starz Play is a subscription-based, video download service for delivering movies and other video content over the Internet. It offers a wide variety of first-run hit movies, independent films and well-known classics, in addition to extreme sports, concerts, anime, westerns and original programming. Users of other broadband services can subscribe to the service with credit card billing.

Features of the service include:

• Unlimited viewing of downloaded movies for as long as the user's Starz Play membership is valid and the title is available on the service. Movies are typically available at least four months at a time and often for more than a year.
• Live, streaming East Coast feed of the premium Starz TV channel.
  
• Catalog of more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 total monthly video selections. Up to 30 new titles are added each Friday.
  
• State-of-the-art user interface with a Watch Now feature that allows viewing of a movie or video while it continues downloading in the background, and search functionality by title, actor, director, category, format, rating and language.
• Password-protected parental controls with security settings for PG-13 or R-rated titles.
• Just for You feature that recommends new titles based on users' viewing history.
  
• Top Picks menu featuring daily list of titles most frequently downloaded by other users.
  

In 2008, Starz Play will offer many blockbuster movies including "Spider-Man 3," "Ratatouille," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Superbad," "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," "No Country for Old Men," "Wild Hogs," "Mad Money" and "Enchanted." Starz Play will also feature new original content from Starz including the recently announced series "Crash," based on the Academy Award -winning film and new original comedic series "Head Case" and "Hollywood Residential."

The Starz Play service will be carried to Verizon broadband customers over the company's world-class broadband networks. Verizon High Speed Internet service is delivered on a dedicated line from Verizon's central office to customers' homes, with available downstream connection speeds of up to 7 Megabits per second (Mbps). FiOS Internet is delivered over the nation's most advanced fiber optic network straight to customers homes with downstream connection speeds ranging from up to 5 Mbps to up to 50 Mbps and upload speeds as high as up to 20 Mbps.

For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

SOURCE Verizon