Lionsgate India and SonyLIV Partner to Launch LIONSGATE PLAY Premium Offering

LIONSGATE PLAY Launches with over 500 Hours of Programming in India. New Channel Will Debut on 1st November 2018

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Nov 01, 2018, 11:57 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lionsgate India and SonyLIV are partnering to kick off next week's Diwali Festival with the launch of LIONSGATE PLAY on the SonyLIV streaming platform, the two companies announced today.

SonyLIV is one of the largest local broadcast-owned over-the-top platforms in India in terms of viewership and consumption. It is renowned for hit series like Indian Idol and Kaun Banega Crorepati (Who Wants to Be A Millionaire) amongst others and also licenses the rights to the best sports programming in the territory. Additionally, SonyLIV is home to fitness, original Web series, blockbuster movies and more.

The embedded LIONSGATE PLAY destination will launch with over 500 hours of Starz and Lionsgate premium original series, including the Starz hits Power, Vida, Sweetbitter, The White Queen, The White Princess and the eagerly-anticipated The Spanish Princess along with popular Lionsgate library titles such as Crash, Manhattan, Wildfire, Are We There Yet? and Chasing Life.

The offering will be bundled within SonyLIV's current slate of programming, significantly enhancing their premium English-language offering to customers. Powered by a combination of Starz original programming, premium Lionsgate content and a deep library, the LIONSGATE PLAY launch is the latest step in the continued expansion of Lionsgate and Starz platforms around the world.

Starz has launched or announced STARZPLAY channels in the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and Spain and is part of the leading subscription video on demand (SVOD) service in the Middle East and North Africa. Lionsgate has recently announced major content licensing agreements in Australia and Latin America.

"We're incredibly excited to team with a prolific and innovative content powerhouse like Lionsgate," said SonyLIV Business Head Uday Sodhi. "With over 500 hours of premium programming at launch, they bring to our platform a great mix of popular Starz original series and classic Lionsgate catalog titles sure to resonate with our customers for years to come."

"We're excited to partner with Sony LIV to launch LIONSGATE PLAY in India," said Lionsgate India Managing Director Rohit Jain. "Our collaboration is the latest milestone in elevating our brand in India, and we're delighted to kick off our partnership with a robust portfolio of Lionsgate and Starz programming. Sony India has a reputation for bringing cutting-edge entertainment to Indian audiences, making them the perfect choice for us to deliver some of our most successful premium English-language content. Consumption of English-language content is still at its early stages in this market and, with this collaboration, we're well positioned to fulfil that latent demand. This is a great starting point for our two companies, and we are excited about the journey ahead of us."

ABOUT SONYLIV
SonyLIV is the first premium Video on demand (VOD) service by Sony Pictures Networks' (SPN) providing multi-screen engagement for users on all devices. Launched in January 2013, it enables users to discover 20 years of rich content from the network channels of Sony Pictures Networks' Pvt. Ltd. It also provides a rich array of movies, strong line-up of events across all sports, shows, music, product reviews.With over 81.1 million app downloads so far, SonyLIV is the first amongst its competition to provide original exclusive premium content. As a true pioneer in its space, SonyLIV launched India's first-ever original show exclusively for the online platform. With #LoveBytes, it became the country's first digital video-on- demand (VOD) platform to introduce an innovation of this nature. Streaming the biggest football tournament, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia and making SonyLIV the most preferred online destination for football fans. SonyLIV also live streamed the India tour of South Africa, India tour of England and is all geared up for the India tour of Australia in November 2018. SonyLIV has a wide array of English content with award winning shows like The Good Doctor, Mr. Mercedes, Damages, Counterpart and more. www.sonyliv.com

ABOUT LIONSGATE
The first major new studio in decades, Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B) is a global content leader whose films, television series, digital products and linear and over-the-top platforms reach next generation audiences around the world. In addition to its filmed entertainment leadership, Lionsgate content drives a growing presence in interactive and location-based entertainment, video games, esports and other new entertainment technologies. Lionsgate's content initiatives are backed by a nearly 17,000-title film and television library and delivered through a global sales and distribution infrastructure. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with original, daring and ground-breaking content created with special emphasis on the evolving patterns and diverse composition of the Company's worldwide consumer base.

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SOURCE Lionsgate