As Starz gets set for its first shareholder meeting as a spun off, pure-play TV production brand without its Lionsgate studio sibling, the company has disclosed its C-suite pay for top execs.
Jeffrey Hirsch, who has spent a decade at Starz and took the CEO title in 2019, saw his compensation package total $6.7 million between salary, incentives and awards, a securities filing disclosed on April 2 shows. His current contract runs through December 2028.
Alison Hoffman, who oversees content and revenue as president, received $2.7 million while CFO Scott Macdonald saw pay total $2 million in fiscal ’25.
“The media landscape is evolving rapidly, but spin-offs, consolidation, and bundling are creating opportunities for focused, profitable players like Starz,” Hirsch wrote in a letter to shareholders. “With a highly capable tech stack and a proven playbook to migrate a linear-first business into a digital-led one, we believe our business is well positioned to participate in industry M&A as a buyer of complementary assets that align with our audiences, all while maintaining disciplined leverage and generating cash.”
In its filing, Starz also noted it inked an advisory services contract with longtime Lionsgate exec Michael Burns last May that includes a monthly fee of $50,000 along with a “one-time equity grant with a value of $3,000,000 of non-qualified performance-based stock options.”
The company cut 7 percent (or less than 40 employees) of its workforce in March in a shifting of resources at the company, which now has 517 staffers across its Santa Monica, New York and Englewood, Colorado offices. Part of that restructuring includes cutting cash content spend this year, CFO MacDonald had said on an earnings call with analysts in February.
Starz, which disclosed 17.63 million U.S. subscribers as of December, is fueled by franchises like Outlander, which bowed its eighth season this year, and Power, a five-season crime drama that yielded multiple spinoffs. In addition to Lionsgate, Starz has programming output deals with Universal (until 2029) and library output deals with Disney (in 2026), Sony (until 2027) and Warner Bros. (until 2028).
The company, which is incorporated in British Columbia, is holding its shareholder meeting on May 15.
