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Starz saw total revenue slide again in the second quarter of 2026 — but the media company reported its first year-over-year growth in streaming revenue in 18 months. Company execs believe the business is turning around,
and they’ve raised their outlook for adjusted OIBDA (operating income before depreciation and amortization) growth for full-year 2026 from low single-digits to mid single-digits.
Total revenue in the second quarter was $307.9 million, down 4% year over year. OTT revenue as reported was $221.3 million, up ever so slightly from $221.1 million in the year-earlier period. However, Starz said, streaming revenue would have increased 1.4% in the June 2026 quarter excluding $3 million of OTT revenue related to Canadian operations that was recorded in Q2 2025. (Starz transitioned its Canadian operations from a distribution partnership with Bell to a content-licensing model at the end of 2025.)
Linear TV and other revenue declined 14% to $86.6 million. In the second quarter, Starz saw a revenue decline of $13.2 million “resulting from the continued decline in traditional linear households,” per its quarterly SEC filing. That was partially offset by an increase in distribution and other revenue of $1.1 million related to the switch to a content-licensing model in Canada.
Net loss ballooned to $189.4 million, compared with a loss of $42.5 million in Q2 2025. Starz reported an operating loss of $175.5 million (vs. $26.9 million a year earlier).
Taking a big bite out of Starz’s earnings: The company took a restructuring charge of $147 million in the second quarter of 2026 in association with the termination of its pay-2 film output agreement with Universal Pictures in April. The wind-down of the Universal deal was previously announced by Starz president and CEO Jeff Hirsch, who cited “lower viewership than we originally projected.” In prepared remarks Friday, Starz CFO Scott Macdonald said, “We continue to expect this to be the final content restructuring charge of this magnitude going forward, which sets the company up for meaningfully lower restructuring activity from here.” Given the timing of Starz’s final cash payments to Universal in 2028, Macdonald said, “we believe 2029 is shaping up to be a significant year for free cash flow growth relative to the trajectory we see across 2026 through 2028.”
In Q2, Starz’s stop-performing titles were the finale of “Outlander”; the premiere of “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” Season 5 (pictured above); and “The Housemaid,” Lionsgate’s psychological thriller starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, which debuted April 1 on Starz.
In prepared remarks, Hirsch said “Raising Kanan” Season 5 grew its audience from the first season five years ago, “a rare achievement in today’s television landscape.” In addition, he said, the July 31 premiere of “Fightland,” the boxing crime drama series produced by 50 Cent, was Starz’s No. 2 best-rated original IP launch of all time (after the Season 1 premiere of “BMF” in 2021).
“Our second-quarter results reflect the momentum we are building across the business and the strength of our content portfolio,” Hirsch said in a statement. “We delivered another quarter of strong audience engagement and OTT revenue growth, and the success of the ‘Fightland’ premiere validates our ownership strategy.”
Hirsch said the company’s improved visibility into the second half of the year and the early performance of “Fightland” have served to “increase our confidence that 2026 is shaping up to be a more significant inflection year for Starz than we initially anticipated.”
During the second quarter, Starz launched a new partnership with NBCUniversal’s Peacock that makes Starz available as an add-on subscription to the platform for the first time. And last week, Starz announced a new discounted bundle with Crunchyroll on Prime Video.
Upcoming programming coming to Starz includes the return of “P-Valley,” the continued expansion of the “Outlander” universe through “Blood of My Blood” Season 2, and the upcoming biopic “Michael” following its record-breaking theatrical run. Further out, Hirsch said, “we continue to build our owned content pipeline beyond ‘Fightland’ with the ‘Untitled Black Rodeo Show,'” which is starting production this month. and several other Starz-owned projects in development.
Adjusted OIBDA was $60 million for the quarter, ahead of Starz’s expectations and up from $33.4 million in the year-ago period. The company expects Q3 adjusted OIBDA to be in the mid-$30 million range. That “will be our lowest quarter of the year due to higher programming amortization” from the airing of “Raising Kanan” S5, “Fightland” S1 and “Blood of My Blood” S2 all during Q3, according to Macdonald. Starz expects Q4 to “finish the year strongly in the mid-60s.” As such, the company is raising 2026 adjusted OIBDA growth guidance from low single-digits to mid single digits, “and we remain confident in achieving our 20% adjusted OIBDA margin target in the back half of 2027,” the CFO said.
In the second quarter, Starz’s unlevered free cash flow was negative $15 million and equity free cash flow was negative $33 million “given the timing of content payments,” Macdonald said. Free cash flow still came in ahead of expectations, he added.
Cash content spend was $182 million for the second quarter. With the exit of the Universal agreement, Starz expects to report full-year 2026 cash content spend below $600 million.
Net debt was $566 million as of June 30, 2026, and adjusted OIBDA leverage ratio was 2.9 times. Starz has obtained commitments to increase its credit facilities by $100 million, comprised of a $67 million increase to its Term Loan A and a $33 million increase to its revolving credit. Even after incorporating the additional $67 million of debt, Starz continues to expect to end 2026 with adjusted OIBDA leverage of approximately 2.7 times.
