Starz being sold to Roku?

There is speculation that Starz will be sold to Roku this summer. Lionsgate, which owns Starz, announced last year that it was looking to spin off or sell Starz this year.

According to a report in Variety from last November, Lionsgate began shopping he service and looking at spinning it off as a standalone company:

... Lionsgate announced that its board of directors has given the greenlight to its management team to explore spinning off or selling its Starz division. The company Lionsgate spent $4.4 billion to buy Starz in 2016, a move that expanded its television operations, but one that also added to its debt load.

Now comes word that Roku is one of the companies interested in purchasing Starz. Variety reported last week that the streaming platform already has a relationship with Lionsgate and Starz, and that could make it a smooth transition, should the platform purchase the service.

Among the suitors are Roku and Apollo Group, which have teamed on a bid to acquire a minority stake in Starz.

On the earnings call Thursday, CEO Jon Feltheimer said Lionsgate is aiming to announce its plan for Starz by the end of this summer and that the company expects a transaction could close as early as the first quarter of calendar year 2023.

If this happens, I certainly hope that Starz isn't limited to Roku devices or the Roku Channel for a standalone subscription. Rather, it would be good to continue to offer it as it does, plus keep a standalone app, at least for non-Roku devices.

Adding older Starz content to the ad supported Roku Channel would be a boost for Roku Channel, should that happen. And it may make it easier to get Roku Channel on other platforms. While Roku is the largest platform, having a presence on its competitors' platforms would be an increase in ad revenue from Roku Channel.

I don't know if Roku is being slack in getting apps developed for the other platforms, or if the other platforms simply don't want Roku Channel on their platforms.

If the former, this may help with that, if they get some qualified programmers for those languages/platforms. If the latter, this may be leverage in helping get Roku Channel on the missing platforms.

In the end, if your Streaming Life is easier on account of this, then this would be a good thing. While Starz isn't quite the stature of HBO or Showtime, it's a good streaming service and cable channel. I'd like to see it succeed and gain a wider market.

NFL streaming, but not to streaming devices

Reports of the new NFL Plus streaming package don't seem to do much for streamers.

NFL fans (and I know there are lots of you out there) that are also streamers (and I know there are more and more of you out there) don't really gain anything from this announcement.

The service will allow fans to watch in-market games on mobile devices. It will not be available for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Android/Google TV.

This is different from NFL Sunday Ticket, as that's for out of market games, and is carried only on DirecTV, the satellite service. Sports Business Journal says he price is cheap, as $5/month.

Live games on mobile phones and tablets will be the content centerpiece of NFL Plus, which will sell for about $5 monthly, though a source cautioned the pricing structure may change. It will likely include other content as well; possibilities include radio, podcasts and miscellaneous team-created content.

The live mobile/tablet games will be limited to what fans could otherwise see in their local TV markets. Until this year, those games were distributed to tablets and laptops via Yahoo and on mobile phones through major carriers, deals that have since expired.

No TV streaming, which to me means that it's not for streamers.

Will this change? Yeah, probably. One day. In the future. Maybe I'll live long enough to see it. Or not. I'm not holding out any hope.

The NFL isn't a part of my Streaming Life, as I don't watch their games, but it is important to a number of sports fans. And more and more of those are streamers. It would be great if the NFL recognized that.

Memorial Day (2022)

I am oppressed with a sense of the impropriety of uttering works on this occasion. If silence is ever golden, it must be here beside the graves of fifteen thousand men, whose lives were more significant than speech, and whose death was a poem, the music of which can never be sung. With words we make promises, plight faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be kept; plighted faith may be broken; and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. For the noblest man that lives, there still remains a conflict. He must still withstand the assaults of time and fortune, must still be assailed with temptations, before which lofty natures have fallen; but with these the conflict ended, the victory was won, when death stamped on them the great seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can never blot.

Excerpt from the first Memorial Day proclamation, May 30, 1968, by President James A. Garfield.

Linux is still on the radar, but no closer

I mentioned as recently as last weekend that my plans to spend time working with Linux have gone slowly. They've gone slower since then.

For one thing, I needed to focus on a new TV. And I ordered a new TV and am installing it this weekend. I didn't install it the day it arrived because another issue arose. An issue with either my phone or Google app on my phone caused me to no longer be able to control my network as I like. Additionally, smart control of lights, air conditioners, and such are not not working on all devices.

After a few attempts to resolve that had the opposite effect, I decided that since I needed to disconnect a lot of stuff to hook up the new TV, I would reconfigure my network. It's a nightmare of switches and cables as it has grown over the years with stuff being added and removed. So, by taking the old TV down, I've had access to everything. And this is a good time to re-do it all in a much nicer and more organized fashion. You can't do that while tinkering with setting up a Linux device.

I'm actually setting up two. One is already set up: a Raspberry Pi. The goal is for that to be a Plex Media Server. It's been set up and running basic Raspberry Pi OS (nee Raspbian) for a bit. I has installed Plex Media Server, but haven't added an expansion disk (will need over 10 TB) yet. Once I do that, I'll be able to copy the content over and try that as my server for a bit. Whether its feasible long term, I don't know. I know I'll need another computer to prepare content for moving into Plex, as the Raspberry Pi can't really handle that. So it's sitting by, just chugging along, 

I actually looked in on the Raspberry Pi this weekend. It's been running through a KVM switch with my other project devices. It's sitting there quietly, awaiting my doing something. And letting me about updates that are available. So I updated and left it sitting there, awaiting the day it gets my full attention.

But my new Linux project is actually converting an older Windows PC to run Linux, as well as converting a older MacBook Pro to run Linux. And no progress there, either. I had hoped to get the desktop set up, but the TV and network re-work takes precedence.

This weekend hasn't been the day to start my Linux desktop, even though I have the new SSD drive I'll set up as the boot device. It's just awaiting me actually doing it, as all the parts are in. But, as I said, it had to wait. My new TV and my Streaming Life take precedence for now.