Starz Readying Streaming App That May Not Require Cable Subscription, Say Reports [Early Word Suggests That The Starz Network May Be Making Its Own Streaming Offering Much Like Sony]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Friday, 18. November 2011 under: Audio,Visual, Internet Highlights

Okay, home theater buffs out there, and especially those of you who have a mind to ditch your cable provider because you’re getting sick of paying for a service that requires you to pay for advertising, too, brace yourselves. There’s some word going around right now that says the Starz channels may be looking to launch their own streaming app…and you may not need a cable subscription to get in on this.

We all remember back in September, when the folks at Starz announced they weren’t going to be carrying on with Netflix any more when it comes time to renew their license this February. And that represents a pretty substantial loss of streaming content to Netflix, including a variety of movies (especially Disney fare) and TV shows (like the very entertaining Spartacus line) that wouldn’t be found out there any more. But as it turns out, that doesn’t mean that Starz is exiting the web. Rather, according to word from Starz president Chris Albrecht, the plan is to create a mobile streaming app similar to HBO Go, which would be accessed via a variety of mobile devices, and possibly even extending as far as regular computers.

But the biggest kicker to this one is that there’s some indication that you may not need a subscription to check this out, unlike, say, HBO Go or the various other apps we’ve seen so far. And, word is that Starz is still looking to Netflix’s competitors for a new venue, including Amazon and Blockbuster alike.

What this means is that cable cutters may have a serious new friend in terms of making their streaming day possible; even if Starz were to charge approximately like Hulu Plus does for its service, it would still represent a substantial discount over cable television, and it would provide a whole lot of content for users, plus quite a bit more in the way of movies. It could well turn out like the project Sony had expressed interest in earlier this week.

Of course, we likely wouldn’t see this start rolling out until maybe March at the earliest, when Netflix’s current deal with Starz is set to run out at last report, but the possibilities are certainly impressive enough, and hopefully, we’ll be getting a great new source for quality content to watch online.

But what do you guys think here? Will we see more networks take Starz’s lead? Will the resulting bandwidth crunches put paid to such an idea before it can even begin? Or do you think we may be looking at the start of something really interesting here? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!