Showtime's not worried about the new premium movie channel competition

Don't worry about Showtime, the network insists the threat of a Viacom-MGM-Paramount-Lionsgate premium movie channel is not going to hurt it, and in fact it's "in a better position as a free agent", according to VP Stu Zakim. Multichannel News has word from the corporate PR exec that only two movies ranked among the 20 top rated programs on the network in 2007, and considering the license fees the studios asked, it was better served investing in series development and marketing. We can expect fresh movies on Showtime through 2010-11, but after that it'll be up to remaining partner CBS Films to keep serving up the flicks, but for lovers of Weeds, Californication and Dexter there should be plenty more where that came from.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 22nd 2008 2:38PM]

Showtime's HD channels through DirecTV suck. The audio/video sync is terrible and always requires an audio delay to be set. Maybe they should take notes from HBO or Starz....

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 23rd 2008 2:06PM]

I've never had any a/v sync issues with ShowtimeHD on DirecTV.

I don't really watch that many movies on it, I basically just use it for watching MMA fights. But I've never had any issues with them.