Starz chief executive Jeff Hirsch saw a pay package of $6.75 million for 2025, a transitional year where the company separated from Lionsgate Studios.
Hirsch received a base salary of $1.16 million; $2.53 million in stock awards; and $2.95 million in incentive plan compensation, according to a proxy statement filed with the SEC. There are no year-earlier figures for comparison as Starz and Lionsgate Studios just separated in May of 2025.
Starz also set its first annual shareholder meeting as a standalone public company for May 7.
The board, which last fall inked a new three-year employment agreement with Hirsch through the end of 2028, noted his leadership during the separation, delivery on financial goals and advancing the its growth strategy by rebuilding its content library, greenlighting and producing the first Starz-owned original series Fightland, securing co-commission partners and improving the content cost structure.
Starz laid off about 7% of its workforce in March.
Proxies detail the pay of a company’s top five highest paid executive officers. Hirsch’s team includes Alison Hoffman, President of Starz Network, CFO Scott MacDonald, General Counsel Audrey Lee and EVP, Technology, Jason Wyric.
For 2025, Starz compensation table also listed Jon Feltheimer and Jimmy Barge, chief executive and chief financial officer of the old Lionsgate and currently of Lionsgate Studios, who received pro-rata comp for the year up through the split of, respectively, $224k and $129k.
The proxy also noted a one-time stock option grant worth $3 million to Michael Burns as well as an annual award of performance-based restricted stock units worth $500k to the non-executive board chair.