UMC – Urban Movie Channel, the premium subscription-based video streaming service exclusive to RLJ Entertainment created by Robert L. Johnson, Chairman of RLJ Entertainment and founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), today announced they have acquired a multi-year license of over 40 hours of "urban-themed" content from Starz Digital, the worldwide digital and on-demand syndication arm of Starz, to debut on the channel over the summer.
"We are excited to have acquired an array of titles from Starz Digital that will bolster our UMC content library," said Angela Northington, RLJ Entertainment’s SVP of Urban Content Acquisitions. "This package is comprised of titles ranging from comedy and drama to action/thriller and documentary. It is in line with what our Chairman, Bob Johnson, has envisioned for growing the UMC digital channel," she concluded.
Mara Winokur, Senior Vice President at Starz Digital commented, "Starz Digital is always seeking new opportunities to identify relationships with distributors on emerging digital platforms. This recent UMC agreement brings strong titles from our portfolio of urban library programming with an on-target digital outlet that is a great match for the content."
Among the titles secured in the Starz Digital package are five seasons of the popular "Martin LawrenceMartin Lawrence as host and presenter; "Phunny Business" featuring comedian Dave Chappelle, and the late comedian and actor Bernie Mac; and "Lies and Illusions" starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Christian Slater; and the award-winning "History of Jazz: Oxygen for the Ears" documentary featuring jazz giants Esperanza Spalding, Thelonius Monk, Norah Jones, and many more.
UMC – Urban Movie Channel (urbanmoviechannel.com), launched in November 2014, is devoted to the acquisition of feature films, comedy specials, stage plays, documentaries, music, and entertainment for African American audiences, with plans to move into future development and production. New titles are added weekly in addition to the more than 150 titles in the UMC library.
UMC is available on the Roku platform. Subscribers can also access UMC from their tablets, phones and laptops.
Visit www.urbanmoviechannel.com.
