{"id":24009,"date":"2016-04-05T11:35:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=24009"},"modified":"2016-04-05T11:35:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:35:43","slug":"starz-rolls-out-cheapest-streaming-service-less-than-hbo-showtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/bens-bytes\/starz-rolls-out-cheapest-streaming-service-less-than-hbo-showtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Starz rolls out cheapest streaming service; less than HBO, Showtime"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24018\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"starz-streaming\" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming.jpg 800w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Attempting to take on HBO Now as well as Showtime&#8217;s streaming service, Starz has launched a standalone option for accessing original programming as well as movies licensed to the network. Pricing the service at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.starz.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">$8.99 per month<\/a>, that&#8217;s $2 cheaper than Showtime&#8217;s $10.99 per month cost and $6 cheaper than HBO&#8217;s $14.99 monthly fee. Of course, if you subscribe to Hulu, you can get Showtime at a reduced cost of $8.99 a month.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone that already subscribes to Starz through a premium cable provider will receive free access to the app in order to stream video. Interestingly,\u00a0the $8.99 per month price isn&#8217;t any different than the price provided to Amazon Prime customers. Just last year, Starz added programming to Amazon in order to allow Prime users to watch for a premium fee. Showtime did the same, but reduced the cost to match Starz at $8.99.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming-amazon.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24020\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming-amazon.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"starz-streaming-amazon\" width=\"740\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming-amazon.jpg 740w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/starz-streaming-amazon-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At this time, the Starz app is only being distributed for Android and iOS devices. It doesn&#8217;t appear as if Starz has created standalone apps for streaming set-top boxes (like the Roku platform) or gaming consoles (like the PS4, Xbox One) as of yet, an advantage to HBO and Showtime at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Starz is offering a download option that competitors are shying away from. You will have the ability to download video to watch when offline, ideal for anyone on a commute with spotty cell service or on a plane that has terrible Wi-Fi. Starz is also attempting to attract new subscribers with providing access to hit movies like\u00a0<em>Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/em> and <em>Star Wars: The Force Awakens. <\/em>Of course, those movies will only be\u00a0available\u00a0for a limited time during the\u00a0licensing period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attempting to take on HBO Now as well as Showtime&#8217;s streaming service, Starz has launched a standalone option for accessing original programming as well as movies licensed to the network. Pricing the service at $8.99 per month, that&#8217;s $2 cheaper than Showtime&#8217;s $10.99 per month cost and $6 cheaper than HBO&#8217;s $14.99 monthly fee. Of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1205,473,1521,1522,48,486],"class_list":["post-24009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bens-bytes","tag-cable","tag-hbo","tag-starz","tag-streaming","tag-streaming-video","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24009"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24021,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24009\/revisions\/24021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}