Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation

Good day and welcome to Lions Gates second quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Neelay Shah. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the Lionsgate fiscal 2022 second quarter conference call. We'll begin with opening remarks from our CEO, John Feldheimer, followed by remarks from our CFO, Jimmy Barge. After their remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Also joining us on the call today are Vice Chairman Michael Burns. COO Brian Goldsmith, Chairman of the TV Group, Kevin Beggs, and Chairman of the Motion Picture Group, Joe Drake. And from Starz, We have President and CEO, Jeffrey Hirsch, CFO, Scott McDonald, President of Domestic Networks, Alison Hoffman, and President of International Networks, Sipurna Kale. The matters discussed on this call include forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance of future fiscal years. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. This includes the risk factors set forth in Lionsgate's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as amended in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. I'll now turn the call over to John.

Thank you, Neelay, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Before I talk about another strong quarter, I want to note the Board authorization in regard to STARS. Following my remarks, I'll turn things over to Michael, who will discuss our filing. Now I'll go through a few highlights of the quarter, then drill down on each of our businesses. We returned to domestic subscriber growth at Starz, driven by a strong content quarter, and we continued to grow our Starz international subscriber base. Overall, we added 1 million global subscribers in the quarter and remain on track for our long-term subscriber targets. Our television group had a very active quarter, launching six new television series, three at Starz and three for other platforms. In addition to rolling out new shows, we're securing valuable renewals of current shows with six Lionsgate television series recently renewed for new seasons. We started production on nine new films in the quarter as we continue to assemble a strong feature slate for theatrical distribution, ancillary platform monetization, licensing to streamers, and our theatrical output agreement with stars. Our film and television library continued to perform at record levels with an all-time high of $784 million in trailing 12-month revenue. We're already seeing contributions from the Spyglass Library acquired in the quarter, And we have great early momentum in our partnership with Gary Barber's Spyglass Production and Distribution Company. And we continue to advance our all-important diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives with inclusive hiring policies, a diverse internship program, an inclusive vendor pool, the continued ramp of inclusive new film and TV content, and the expansion of Star's groundbreaking Take the Lead initiative. Beginning at Starz, Power Book 3, Raising Kanan, and the crime family drama BMF launched in the quarter to the second and third best premiere weeks ever on the Starz platform. We continue to diversify the slate with the successful debut of the critically acclaimed drama Heels, with early renewals for all three series. Looking ahead, we expect returning tentpoles Power Book 2, Ghost, and Outlander, and new series Power Book Four Force, the Courtney Cox-starring horror comedy Shining Veil, the star-studded Watergate drama Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, and the period drama The Serpent Queen to continue to drive subscriber growth and retention as we continue to roll out our strongest slate ever. In the quarter, for the first time, domestic revenue from our streaming business exceeded our traditional linear revenue. With the advantage of a strong linear business, we've been able to successfully expand into a premium service complementary to other platforms in both the traditional and streaming worlds. And our value proposition will only continue to grow as this transition continues. Internationally, three years into the rollout of StarzPlay, we're in more than 60 countries with 80 distribution partners and 7.5 million subscribers, not counting the nearly 2 million subscribers at StarzPlay Arabia. Subscribers grew by over half a million in the quarter, driven by the success of the hit third-party acquisition Dr. Death in Italy, Spain, and Mexico, and the Starz original series Raising Canaan in the UK, France, and Brazil. After a fast start in India, Lionsgate Play has expanded into four new markets in South and Southeast Asia, where we're poised to roll out our first slate of original programming. We're continuing to strategically invest in more local language originals, striking new partner alliances and leaning into a wholesale model that we believe offers the best long-term return on our investment and the greatest advantages to current and future partners, while strengthening our unique position in the ecosystem as a premium service that can sit on top of any platform. Turning to our motion picture group, the breakout performances of recent theatrical releases and the appetite from streaming platforms makes one thing certain, that overall demand for movie content across multiple platforms is greater than ever. Following an active production year, we're putting the finishing touches on a slate with strength and balance in a number of critical areas built not only to meet the needs of a rebounding theatrical exhibition business and ever-growing demand for home viewing, as well as driving value in our library and stars. It's a slate loaded with big, valuable brands led by John Wick Chapter 4, starring Keanu Reeves. Borderlands with a world-class cast of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black. The Hunger Games prequel, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, adapted from Suzanne Collins' runaway bestseller. And Expendables 4 with a who's who cast of action stars. And behind those tent poles, iconic brands, Dirty Dancing, Now You See Me, Monopoly, Naruto, The Highlander, and The Night Circus are all an active development, intellectual property, which will drive value across our business. It's also a broad and varied slate with inspiring stories like American Underdog opening on Christmas Day. White Bird, A Wonder Story, starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson in the follow-up to the breakout hit Wonder. And Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, adapted from Judy Blume's classic novel, directed by Kelly Freeman Craig and produced by Academy Award winner James L. Brooks. Big event movies like Roland Emmerich's sci-fi epic Moonfall, starring Halle Berry and Donald Sutherland. and star-driven films including Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Nicolas Cage. And finally, as we launch a slate with true global appeal, we're currently out to the international market with our biggest offering in years, over $400 million of movies generating a voracious response from buyers across all distribution platforms. Turning to television, it was a very impressive quarter for our TV group as they leaned into a number of emerging opportunities and strengths, ramping up content for new AVOD buyers with Zoe's Extraordinary Christmas for Roku and shows in the works for IMDb TV and Tubi. Creating shows for broadcast, where we just secured an order for the back half of the first season of Ghosts, the highest rated new comedy on CBS, and a second season renewal of Home Economics, the highest rated new comedy on ABC. Deepening our streaming relationships with the debut of Acapulco and the renewal of seasons three and four of Mythic Quest on Apple, with five series either streaming on or in production for HBO Max. Rolling out a slate of inclusive content with BMF, Blindspotting, Run the World, Ghost, Raising Canaan, Force, and the first offering from the 1619 Project. And of course, continuing to supply stars with 15 premium scripted series currently airing or in the pipeline. Just this morning, we started production in Hungary on the Continental Series for Stars, our exciting expansion of the John Wick universe into television. The origin story of the young Winston features a world-class cast and will roll out in three big 90-minute events on the platform, serving as a reminder of the value of great intellectual property. The Continental becomes part of a slate of nearly 70 Lionsgate television series and 600 hours of programming spanning dozens of platforms. We'll be able to further support this production activity with our new Lionsgate studio in Yonkers, New York. With demand for content greater than ever and prime studio space at a premium, the new state-of-the-art facilities will become an East Coast production hub, increasing our ability to control costs and manage scheduling. Our half-hour scripted series, Run the World for Stars, is slated to be our first production to use the studio early next year. In closing, we've been consistent in creating value across our businesses quarter after quarter. In the past year alone, we've added over 500 titles organically and through acquisitions to one of the largest and freshest film and television libraries in the world. Renewed our greatest number of television series ever in a single year as our television group continues to excel in making new shows for the network, streamers, and stars. Expanded and extended one of the largest portfolios of valuable brands and franchises in the industry with sequels. prequels, spin-offs, branded attractions, interactive games, and digital collectibles, and created tremendous value at Starz by growing subs, adding valuable new shows, building our brand, and scaling our platform around the world. And we've accomplished all this, ramping our content and marketing spend to over $3 billion this year and scaling our film, television, and stars businesses into one of the largest independent content platforms in the world, while still generating positive adjusted free cash flow and strong adjusted . Now I'd like to turn the call over to Michael.