Lionsgate to release E!, Style shows on DVD

Snoop, Kardashians part of studio’s agreement with Comcast

By Danny King -- Video Business, 7/1/2008

JULY 1 | Lionsgate obtained the rights to distribute DVDs of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, among other E! Entertainment, Style Network and G4 TV titles as part of an agreement with U.S. cable-TV leader, Comcast, the networks’ parent company.

The studio’s first release within the agreement will be the DVD version of the E! reality series Sunset Tan on Aug. 5. Other shows Lionsgate will distribute include Style’s Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.

Lionsgate said at a conference last week that it expected to boost home-entertainment sales this year by about 12% and defy the trend of declining DVD sales in the U.S. by increasing TV series revenue with such shows as Showtime’s Weeds, while widening its selection in the children’s, horror and direct-to-DVD genres. The company also plans to feed early 2009 DVD growth with an expanded slate of theatrical releases later this year.

“E!, Style and G4 are among the hottest networks on TV, and our plans to transfer that excitement onto DVD will allow the consumer to watch these programs with a host of extra added features whenever they want,” said Ron Schwartz, general manager and executive VP of Lionsgate Home Entertainment, in today’s statement.

Lionsgate, which also is known for its fitness and Latino genres, reported earlier this month that DVD sales for the year ended March 31 jumped 18% to $623.5 million on titles such as 3:10 to Yuma and Good Luck, Chuck, helping the company boost its fiscal-year U.S. market share to almost 7% and its most recent quarter’s share to 9.1%.

Earlier this year, Lionsgate widened its children’s inventory by inking distribution agreements for MGA’s new Animated Little Tikes Entertainment label and U.K. publisher Hit Entertainment, whose series include Barney, Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends.