Byron Allen buys 11% stake in Starz from Steven Mnuchin’s Liberty 77 for $25m

US media mogul Byron Allen has acquired a 10.7% stake in American pay TV network and streamer Starz for US$25m.

Byron Allen

Allen, via his California-based investment firm Allen Family Capital, is acquiring the stake from Liberty 77, the investment fund led by former Secretary of the US Treasury Steven Mnuchin.

Allen Family Capital said it would increase or decrease its investment position depending on the performance of Starz, which was last year separated from Lionsgate Studios.

The deal comes three years after Liberty 77 acquired an initial 5.5% stake in the Class A voting shares of Lionsgate, when Lionsgate Studios and Starz were still under the same roof.

More recently, in late January of this year, Mnuchin joined Lionsgate Studios’ board of directors. At the time, the company said his financial and regulatory expertise would be a valuable asset to the studio as it sought to grow. Today, Mnuchin holds a roughly 13% stake in Lionsgate Studios.

Allen Media Group owns more than 10 television networks including The Weather Channel and runs 27 affiliate broadcast stations across ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS, among several other media assets.

At last count, Starz has 12.7 million streaming subscribers in the US and a total of 17.6 million subscribers across various platforms. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Starz reported revenue of US$322.8m and a net loss of US$20.7m.