Starz is currently the motion picture, animation, television and home video distribution unit of Lionsgate. In 2006, they became the parent company of Anchor Bay Entertainment, which distributed Thomas & Friends DVDs in the United States and Canada until the end of 2008. Their parent company, Lionsgate, distributed Thomas & Friends DVDs and Blu-rays in the United States and Canada from 2008 to 2014.
History
In 2006, Liberty Media, the owner of the Starz cable network, purchased Anchor Bay Entertainment's then-parent company, IDT Entertainment, from IDT Corporation and renamed it Starz Media. On 3 April 2007, Anchor Bay was renamed as Starz Home Entertainment but, in early 2008, Starz Home Entertainment was changed back to Anchor Bay Entertainment. On 30 June 2016, Lionsgate agreed to purchase Anchor Bay's parent company Starz Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash and stock. The merger was completed on 8 December 2016.
In June 2021, Lionsgate was purchased by Shake Creations, Inc. for over $7 billion.
Trivia
- Anchor Bay Entertainment's logos from 2007 and 2008 both have a subtitle that reads "a STARZ company".
- Starz was also the former owner of Arc Productions.
- From 2017 to 2018, they carried streaming rights to select compilation titles of Thomas & Friends.
- Thomas and the Magic Railroad has aired on both their Starz Encore Family and Starz Kids and Family channels.