Starz Review: Who is it Best For in 2024?

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Starz has been around for 30 years, since launching as pay-TV channel STARZ! back in February 1994. It expanded into a tiered multiplex of channels with options like Starz Encore with films from 1960s, 70s, and 80s.

Starz grew to over 7.5 million subscribers on cable and satellite by May 1998 and in 2022 reportedly had over 37 million subscribers worldwide—which includes platforms like Starzplay Arabia. The “Starz App”—the purely on-demand streaming service that launched in 2016—had 26.3 million subscribers, according to the same report.

This review is about the Starz on-demand streaming service—also called the Starz App—as opposed to cable/satellite service. While not for everybody, our independent and unbiased Starz review can help decide whether the streaming service is right for you.

What is Starz?

As noted above, Starz is an on-demand streaming service focused on movies and original series.

While it is a standalone service, there’s more than one way to log in to Starz. Which can be confusing. (We won’t even get into STARZPLAY and STARZ ON, which aren’t offered in the US.)

If you’ve subscribed to “Starz channels” through a cable or satellite provider, Hulu + Live TV, DirecTV Stream, or YouTube TV, you also get access to the Starz App. Just use your credentials for your TV provider at the Starz login.

How much does Starz cost in 2024?

Starz increased its monthly subscription a dollar in June 2023, but it lowered the price of its annual subscription by 5 bucks at the same time.

It keeps things nice and simple by offering a single tier, which can be purchased monthly, semi-annually, or yearly.

Starz: $9.99/month

• Full access to the Starz on-demand library
• 17 Starz multiplex channels (on-demand)
• Ads: No
• User profiles: 5
• Downloads: Yes
• Simultaneous screens: 4
• Quality: Full HD (1080p)
• Annual Plan: $69.99/year
• Semi-Annual Plan: $45.99/6 months

Starz vs. the alternatives

At a time when streaming services across the industry were raising prices, Starz dropped the price of its annual membership (although it bumped up its monthly subscription a dollar). In September 2023 the Starz annual subscription went from $74.99 down to $69.99, while the monthly price went from $8.99 to $9.99/month.

But even with its dollar price hike, at 10 bucks a month Starz remains one of the cheapest ad-free streaming services around.

You can see how Starz compares to the major on-demand steaming services in the table below.

What kind of content does Starz have?

Starz specializes in movies and original series and focuses on stories from and about under-represented voices, particularly women and people of color.

Its original content has a specific mission—the Take The Lead movement—to fight for equity and inclusion. And it clearly brings these voices to the screen just by looking at its list of shows.

With that said, its movie library still boasts a wide range of genres and has blockbusters and brain candy like Jurassic World, Happy Gilmore, and X2.

Original content on Starz

Starz doesn’t produce as many shows as platforms like Netflix and Hulu, but this is likely a byproduct of having a specific mission in its programming.

You might have noticed that Starz has more romance, historical, and Black shows than, say, shows about superheroes or quirky middle-class detectives. That’s not an accident.

Starz’s #TakeTheLead initiative is to build the brand around traditionally underrepresented voices, such as women and people of color.

We hope that by taking the lead and remaining fiercely dedicated to inclusion on and off screen, and throughout the company, as well as our commitment to bold, unapologetic stories and characters, it will inspire others across the industry.​

Starz #TakeTheLead (Accessed: March 2024)

And representation doesn’t end at the casts and story lines. According to a CNET article from a couple of years ago, 46% of showrunners at Starz are people of color and 55% are women—as is 75% of the executive team (with half being women of color).

Here are some of the best original shows on Starz:

• American Gods
• Black Sails
• BMF
• Gaslit
• Magic City
• Minx
• Outlander
• Party Down
• Power (franchise)

Movies on Starz

Starz lost its Pay-One rights the first exclusive release window for Sony feature films in 2023, but secured a Pay-Two window for Universal films. But while Starz doesn’t have the newest blockbusters, any cinephile will tell you that’s not an indication of quality.

Granted the most notable exclusive on Starz did bring in $440 million at the box office.

John Wick: Chapter 4 hit the stream in September 2023 exclusively on Starz in the US. And the film’s 18-month Pay-One window will keep it on Starz until March 2025, after which it’ll join the rest of the franchise on Peacock.

A lot of the movies on Starz are older, but the library is fun to dig through and full of hidden gems. And some of those movies are only available on Starz.

In addition to John Wick: Chapter 4, some of the movies you can only stream on Starz (as of this writing) are:

• Courage Under Fire (1996)
• The Thin Red Line (1998)
• Finding Forrester (2000)
• Blue Crush (2002)
• Funny People (2009)
• Hesher (2010)
• Only the Brave (2017)
• You Won’t Be Alone (2022)
• Malum (2023)

TV shows on Starz

While original series on Starz are the main draw, there are some licensed series on Starz—but not very many. There are some old westerns not streaming elsewhere, but you won’t find any hit shows from broadcast television in the past 50 years.

Here are some of the licensed TV shows and series on Starz:

• Flesh and Bone
• Da Vinci’s Demons (US exclusive rights)
• Laramie (1959 TV series)
• The Missing (BBC One co-broadcast)
• Vida
• The Virginian (1962 TV series)

Live TV on Starz

There are no live TV channels on Starz.

But there are channels.

When you get Starz on-demand you also get 17 multiplex channels with “scheduled” programming. However, these are not like the linear channels you’ll find on Prime Video or free streaming services like Pluto TV and Tubi. Even though the channels have schedules, when you click on a show to watch it, you’ll get on-demand so you can watch it from the start.

The point of this is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s to keep a connection to its premium cable and satellite roots. (When you order Starz channels through a cable provider, you can choose different tiers and don’t need to subscribe to all the Starz channels.)

These are the channels you get with Starz (on-demand): Starz Originals, Starz Edge, Starz In Black, Starz Comedy, Starz Cinema, Starz Kids & Family, Starz Encore, Starz Encore Action, Starz Encore Classic, Starz Encore Black, Starz Encore Family, Starz Encore Suspense, Starz Encore Westerns, Starz Encore Español, Movie Plex, Indie Plex, and Retro Plex.

Kids content on Starz

Starz isn’t exactly Disney+ when it comes to kids content, but nothing really is. However, it still has a few Disney titles (apparently set to expire in 2025), including Maleficent, Cinderella (2015), and Tomorrowland. It’s also the only place other than Disney+ that you can stream Home Alone 1 and 2 (and Home Alone 3 if you hate yourself).

We counted 90+ movies in the Kids & Family genre portal and here are some of the best kids shows on Starz:

• Are You There God? It’s Men Margaret.
• Jumanji: The Next Level
• The Karate Kid (original and remake)
• Little Women
• Pixels
• Titan A.E.

Sports on Starz

Starz is about entertainment. As in the scripted kind. So you won’t find any live sports, recorded sporting events, or even sports talk shows.

You won’t even find sports documentaries other than the docuseries Warriors of Liberty City (which is actually a must-see for any true football fan).

The most you can expect is sports movies, and even that’s a very small selection. Our search for “sports” reeled in 15 results and 3 of them—Minx, Men in Kilts, and Party Down—have nothing to do with sports.

If sports are what you’re after, look somewhere else.

Starz interface and usability

Navigation

Navigation is simple with a user-friendly interface, making it easy enough to find what you’re looking for. In the browser, the top navigation menu has 6 main headings: Home, Series, Movies, Playlist, Schedule, and Browse, which a dropdown menu that also serves as a search bar.

There’s a 7th item on the main navigation, but it doesn’t take you to content. Clicking on #TakeTheLead will take to you to a page with more information about Starz’s equity and inclusion initiative.

Menus may differ slightly depending on your device. For example, the Fire TV Stick has 5 items in its main menu: Home, Series, Movies, Playlist, and Browse.

The main pages are similar to most streaming services with rows of content according to genres, what’s popular, or new releases. There are also curated collections like Cult Movies, Women Behind the Camera, and Black Cinema.

There’s also a collection called Keep It Under 100 (Minutes). That’s nice when so many movies nowadays surpass the 2-hour mark without really needing to.

Language settings

There aren’t many language options on Starz.

The streamer’s website claims to offer “multiple audio tracks on most titles [but] several titles are only available in English or Spanish.” But we couldn’t find any titles with a language other than English or Spanish. So you basically have an option between English and Spanish for both audio and subtitles.

The subtitle options are far below what other streaming services like Apple TV+ and Prime Video now offer.

However, every series and most movies we checked were dubbed in Spanish, which is not very common yet. So Starz scores points for audio but loses points for subtitles.

Parental controls

You can create a PIN for profile settings, then set specific parental controls for each profile. There are separate restrictions for Series and Movies, with 6 levels and 5 levels, respectively.

Series can be set to TV-Y, TV-y&, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA.

Movies can be set to G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17.

Starz account sharing and simultaneous screens

Netflix launched its password sharing crackdown in 2023 and other streaming services were quick to follow suit. Some were quicker than others and they did so with varying degrees of effort and diligence. 

Fortunately Starz remains one of the more easygoing streaming services when it comes to sharing.

How many people can watch Starz at once?

Four (4).

Beating the industry average of 3 simultaneous screens, you can watch Starz on 4 devices at the same time. (Netflix and Hulu both allow just 2 screens, while Apple TV+ is the most generous with 6 simultaneous screens.)

How many profiles can you make on Starz?

Five (5).

You can create up to 5 profiles on Starz right in the app. You don’t need to add emails or have people connect their accounts like with Apple TV+ and YouTube TV.

Starz supported devices

Starz doesn’t support the most devices, but it’ll get the job done for most people. If you’re only using a smart TV (without another device) make sure your model is supported.

• Streaming devices: Apple TV, Fire TV, Roku
• Phones & tablets: Android, iOS, Fire Tablet
• Cable & satellite boxes: Cox, Xfinity
• Smart TVs: Android TV, LG, Samsung, Vizio
• Smart home devices: None
• Game consoles: Xbox
• Desktops & laptops: Mac, Windows, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari
• Blu-ray players: None

For the most up-to-date list and specific models and generations, check the official Starz Supported Devices page.

Starz streaming quality

Starz streams at a maximum video resolution of 1080p Full HD. While that’s likely a deal-breaker for people looking to stream Starz in 4K UHD, there’s very little lag or load times with the Starz App, which makes for an enjoyable viewing experience.

The absence of 4K is surprising seeing as Starz was an early adopter and one of the first services to offer 4K channels through its StarzPlay service. (StarzPlay has a horribly messy branding history and is no longer available in the US.)

Whether the company will change things stateside so Americans can watch Starz in 4K is anyone’s guess. But with if we had to guess, with nearly every streaming service now offering 4K, it seems bound to happen at some point.

Starz downloads

If you’re wondering whether you can download movies and shows on Starz to watch offline, you’ll be pleased to know the answer is yes. And seeing as there is only one Starz price plan, you don’t need to pay extra for the privilege of downloading.

How long do Starz downloads last?

Starz downloads expire after 2 weeks. When time is up they’re automatically deleted from your downloads list.

NOTE: If the title’s licensing window closes within that 2-week window, it’s also deleted from your list.

How many downloads are allowed on Starz at once?

25.

You can have 25 active Starz downloads across 6 different devices at the same time.

Is there a Starz free trial?

No. (Not directly.)

Netflix got the ball rolling in 2020 when it killed its free trial and many streaming services have followed suit since then. And Starz is one of them.

However, Starz has an almost-free introductory offer. You can get it for just $3/month for up to 3 months or its Semi-Annual Plan for just $20, which is 66% off compared to paying monthly.

Also know that you can still find a Starz 7-day free trial through 3rd-party services such as Amazon Prime Video. Just keep in mind that requires having (and paying for) the 3rd-party service in question.

Starz Review Verdict: Who’s it good for in 2024?

Starz is not trying to appeal to everyone. While its library is well-rounded enough that most people could find something to watch, it’s not trying to be another Netflix or Hulu.

First and foremost, Starz’s mission to address under-representation in Hollywood makes it appealing to female viewers and fans of Black cinema.

This means Starz is best for fans of original series on Starz such as the Power franchise, Minx, and Outlander. (Keep in mind, Power Book V was canceled as Starz plans to focus on more female-driven content.)

Starz will also appeal to film lovers looking for hidden gems and older movies you can’t stream anywhere else. Some older movies you’ll only find on Starz range from Revenge of the Nerds (1984) to Less Than Zero (1987) to A Huey P. Newton Story (2001). Newer movies include Colette (2018), Disobedience (2018), and The Kill Room (2023).

Starz is also the only choice for fans of the Planet of the Apes original film series. It’s the only streaming service to have all 5 movies and the only streamer to have 3 of them: Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973).

While it may not have a year’s worth of content for everyone, the 6-month deal for $20 is tough to beat. It’s hard to imagine you can’t find 20 bucks worth of entertainment on Starz in half a year.

What are your thoughts on Starz? Let us know in the comments below!