Good day, and welcome to the Lionsgate Fiscal 2022 Q4 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nilay Shah, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us for the Lionsgate Fiscal 2022 Q4 Conference Call. We'll begin with opening remarks from our CEO, Jon Feltheimer, followed by remarks from our CFO, Jimmy Barge. After their remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Also joining us on the call today are Vice Chairman Michael Burns, COO Brian Goldsmith, Chairman of the TV Group Kevin Beggs, and Chairman of the Motion Picture Group Joe Drake. From Starz, we have President and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch, CFO Scott MacDonald, President of the Domestic Networks Alison Hoffman, and President of International Networks Superna Kalle. The matters discussed on this call include forward-looking statements, including those regarding the performance of future fiscal years. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.
Actual results could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. This includes the risk factors set forth in Lionsgate's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as amended in our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. I'll now turn the call over to Jon.
Thank you, Nilay, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Before I recap the quarter and the year, I'd like to update everyone on our progress in creating a structure to allow investors to value our Starz and Studio assets separately by spinning off Starz. We're engaged in a robust and productive process with our bankers and a number of potential strategic and financial partners. We're targeting an announcement of our plan by the end of the summer and expect the transaction could close as early as our fiscal Q4 Turning to our results, in spite of a very competitive and disruptive environment, we've just completed one of our best content building years ever as we continue to create significant long-term value. We produced 21 feature films, had a record 14 new television shows picked up to network series.
We went 15 for 15 in renewals of current series, including all three of our broadcast network series, putting them on the path to syndication. We generated $766 million in revenue from our film and television library, added more than 500 titles to our library organically and through acquisitions like the Spyglass Media deal. We finalized Pay-Two theatrical output deals with Roku and Peacock, complementing our Pay-One theatrical output agreement with Starz. Closed major licensing deals for the hit comedy Ghosts with Paramount+ and Schitt's Creek with Hulu. We supported our content creation by opening and beginning production at our Lionsgate Studios in Yonkers, then extended our studio production footprint by announcing a second studio facility in Newark.
We ramped our slate of Starz original scripted series from 6 to 11, doubling down on a focused content investment that did its job by reducing over-the-top churn by nearly 20%. We grew Starz global subscribers by a record 6.3 million in the year to 35.8 million, including Starzplay Arabia, with approximately 80% of them streaming and linear a la carte subscribers. With an eye towards the economy, we took a disciplined and conservative approach to overhead while being opportunistic in executing treasury management strategies to keep our balance sheet strong. Not all of these accomplishments have been reflected yet in our financial results. Some of them, like our investment in new television series, will show their full value as our shows continue to be renewed for later seasons. These early results promise a significant return on our investment.
Instead of my usual overview of each of our businesses, I wanna talk about four things that contributed to our value creation across our content platform during the year. First, our strong content creation year is driving growth across all of our businesses. Our television group is the top independent supplier of premium scripted series, with five series at HBO Max, three shows at Apple TV+, five series airing or in the works with our broadcast network partners, seven shows with AVOD platforms, 15 series lined up at Starz and series at Showtime, Netflix, and Amazon, among others. We've maintained our film production tempo throughout the pandemic, assembling a slate that encompasses big tentpoles, a strong multi-platform business, and a growing lineup of feature films for streamers.
As we continue to prepare our biggest brands for theatrical release, we're also releasing smaller and medium-budget films that lend themselves to innovative windowing strategies and release on streamers. In a world that rewards optionality, by the end of the year, we expect to return to our annual run rate of 45-55 films across our wide theatrical, multi-platform, and direct-to-streamer businesses. In addition to being a content distribution platform throwing off recurring subscriber revenue, Starz is a pillar of our content creation strategy, building a slate of valuable intellectual property with a bold, premium adult sensibility that can be a valuable complement to the programming of the general entertainment platforms. Even after executing our strategic plan for Starz, we will continue to partner with them in the creation of great IP, building our library, and achieving important synergies between Starz and our studio business.
Second, our portfolio of franchises lies at the core of our intellectual property, and we're in production or active development on spinoffs, sequels, prequels, reimaginings, and other brand extensions for nearly every one of them. John Wick: Chapter 4 is finishing production for release early next year. Ana de Armas will star in Ballerina, the John Wick action spinoff, which begins production later this year. Dirty Dancing, starring Jennifer Grey in the reimagining of our classic library title, got a great response from distributors at Cannes this week. Expendables 4, with a world-class cast of action stars, has wrapped production for release next year.
On November 17, 2023, The Hunger Games franchise returns in its customary place on the release calendar with the global rollout of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, starring Billy the Kid's Tom Blyth as the young Coriolanus Snow and directed by Francis Lawrence. Third, we're continuing to scale one of the most valuable film and television libraries in the world. We continue to grow our library organically, manage and window it creatively, and acquire, integrate, and monetize new libraries efficiently. Our recent licensing of Ghosts and Schitt's Creek are the latest examples of the importance of retaining rights to our properties and our ability to increase their value over time.
Finally, when we acquired Starz, we saw an opportunity to build a global streaming platform to bring our content directly to consumers, to enable our Lionsgate television business to scale its content creation by giving it a dedicated buyer, expand the opportunities we offer to our talent, and create another source of valuable IP generation. Our increased content investment at Starz is working. During the year, we grew global subscribers by 21% and reduced domestic churn by nearly 20%. In fact, with big series on the air for both of our core demos, March was our fourth-best streaming subscriber growth month ever, and subscriber acquisition costs declined significantly. This investment has delivered our most robust programming slate with new content every single week for our two key cohorts, women and underrepresented audiences.
Over the last few months, we grew our Power universe with the launch of our third hit series in the franchise, Power Book IV: Force, brought back fan-favorite Outlander for a successful sixth season, and launched premium star-driven properties Shining Vale with Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear, and Gaslit with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Though streaming is not an end in itself, it is a very efficient way to bring content to our consumers worldwide. In that regard, we've built a strong and profitable streaming business at Starz. A number of our international territories will soon turn run-rate positive given our early global expansion, and we remain on track for achieving our long-term financial and subscriber projections. We've also positioned ourselves where the streaming world is heading.
As a premium platform with a predominantly wholesale distribution model, we believe in and are rooting for the success of the broad general entertainment platforms because they will become our future distribution partners. The premium adult focus of our content and the desirability of our core demos gives us confidence that Starz will be bundled and packaged by a growing number of streaming platforms as the industry continues to evolve. In closing, despite all the noise in our environment, our own path is clear. Our investment in content is working, our business model is resilient, and our strategy remains focused. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Jimmy.
Thanks, Jon, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll briefly discuss our Q4 financial results and update you on our balance sheet. Q4 adjusted OIBDA was $83 million and total revenue was $930 million. Year-over-year revenue and adjusted OIBDA growth was driven by strong television performance, with adjusted OIBDA further benefiting from G&A cost control. Reported fully diluted earnings per share was a loss of $0.46 a share, and fully diluted adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.06 a share. Adjusted free cash flow for the quarter was $88 million. Now let me briefly discuss the fiscal Q4 performance of the underlying segments compared to the previous year quarter.
As you will see in our online trending schedules and SEC filings, I will separately address our media networks and studio businesses in total while still providing a breakout of the domestic and international networks, as well as our motion picture and TV studios. Media networks' quarterly revenue was $380 million, and segment profit was $33 million. Excluding Pantaya in last year's Q4 , revenue was down 2.2%. Year-over-year domestic revenue declined 4.2% as positive OTT revenue growth was offset by a decline in linear revenue. Year-over-year international revenue was up 29%, reflecting continued subscriber growth.
The year-over-year media network segment profit declined 23% and primarily reflects the reduction in domestic linear revenues as total content, marketing, and G&A costs were in line in relation to the prior year quarter. We ended the quarter with 35.8 million total global subscribers, including Starzplay Arabia. Total global Media Networks OTT subscribers grew 4.8 million sequentially to 24.5 million. This represents a year-over-year global OTT subscriber growth of 47%. Now I'd like to talk about the studio business in aggregate. Revenue of $658 million was up 31% year-over-year, driven by the television group. Segment profit was $83 million, up 17% year-over-year, also driven by television.
Our total library revenue at the studio was $766 million on a trailing-twelve-month basis, down less than 2% over the $780 million trailing-twelve-month library revenue reported in the Q4 last year. We've noted in the past, last year's trailing-twelve-month library revenue included significant contribution from the licensing of Mad Men. Breaking down the studio business between motion picture and television, let's start with motion picture. Motion picture revenue was down 1.5% to $288 million, while segment profit of $50 million was down 20%. Revenue and segment profit trends reflect continued strength of our library, partially offset by the timing of P&A pre-release spend on The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and content deliveries.
Finally, television revenue was up 76% to $370 million, driven by continued growth in post-pandemic output, which included both new and returning series. Segment profit came in at $33 million, up over 250% year-over-year, reflecting new and returning series episodic deliveries, as well as the continuing strength of 3 Arts performance. On the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with leverage at 5.2x or 3.8x, excluding our investment in Starzplay International, down from 5.5x at the end of the prior quarter. We continue to retain significant liquidity with $371 million of cash on hand and $1.25 billion of an undrawn revolver.
After year-end, we used some of our excess cash to prepay the $194 million of term loan A notes that would have otherwise been due in the Q4 of fiscal 2023. Currently, we have no maturities until the Q4 of fiscal 2025. We remain committed to strengthening our balance sheet and continuing to pay down debt while funding our increased investment in content marketing from adjusted free cash flow. While we don't generally provide annual adjusted OIBDAI guidance, I wanted to provide some color on how to think about the quarterly cadence of earnings throughout fiscal 2023. While overall, I would expect fiscal 2023 to look a lot like fiscal 2022, the cadence will be more back-end loaded.
This reflects the timing of episodic deliveries and Starz programming, including some continuing amortization from the fiscal 2022 buildup of Starz Original series that we expect to put some pressure on adjusted OIBDAI in the first half of the year. Our leverage will naturally rise a bit in the near term as trailing twelve months adjusted OIBDAI reflects the cadence of content marketing costs, but we expect to again delever in the second half. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Nilay for Q&A.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble. Our first question will come from Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon. John, I just wanna make sure I heard you right with your opening remarks. I think you said you expect to have Starz either spun off or otherwise separated from studios, probably with an announcement this summer by the end of the year. Just to be clear, there will certainly be a separation. I'm not asking for kinda details on what happens to Starz, but it sounds like, you know, barring something really changing, we'll at least see the two separated in the coming months. Did I hear that correctly?
You certainly heard sort of what I would indicate as a probable timeframe. Obviously, anything can change. We're in an incredibly disruptive environment right now, but based upon the conversations we're having right now, we think that's the appropriate timeframe.
Great. As we just think about valuing the two different sides of the company, can you update us? Are there any content rights that are owned and controlled at Starz? Or, you know, do we really think about Starz as a consumer-facing service and the content comes in primarily from Lionsgate, or does Starz actually own and control some of the content that fits with the service?
Yeah, that's a great question. I think you know, you could talk about two things. One, I would say, Starz generates a lot of its own content, and we would expect that to, going forward, to continue. Currently, most of the underlying IP resides with the studio side. Going forward, obviously, there's a lot of devil in the detail, and we'd have to see you know, how we wanna structure that with our potential strategic partners.
Great. Thank you.
Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Kutgun Maral with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Great, thanks. Again, thanks for the update on the Starz transaction. Just to follow up on Steve's line of questioning, just so we're all on the same page, is there any more color you can provide in terms of the structure of the transaction and whether or not you're expecting to monetize your entire stake? Second, you know, it's very encouraging, I think, that despite the current market backdrop and value compression that we've all seen across the broader ecosystem, that it sounds like there's a robust demand environment for Starz, given the discussions you're having with, I think you called out a number of strategic and financial partners.
I guess I appreciate the urge to crystallize value for the asset, but, you know, the question is why sell now, especially when Starz profitability is being weighed down by all the investments that you've made, and there's perhaps such a dislocation in valuation across the market? Or perhaps you're not seeing that dislocation, given the demand that you're seeing. Any color would be appreciated.
Yeah. There's a lot to unpack there. I think certainly the main impetus for the separation is that we don't feel that the Street is giving us the value for the sum of the parts. I feel like with the companies separated, they can both concentrate on their core businesses. My sense is they will also see some opportunities, perhaps some strategic opportunities, that they might not see with the companies that are combined. I appreciate what you're saying. I think it's true. We got out early in the international marketplace and so it is true that a number of those territories are gonna be turning positive in the near future.
One could say, "Well, you know, why aren't you waiting?" This is the plan that we have now. Our sense is right now that we are not selling all of it, but honestly, you know, anything could happen, and that's why we're not giving you more details right now.
Fair enough. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Kutgun. Operator, can we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Matthew Thornton with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Maybe two, if I could. If I'm not mistaken, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think in Starz domestic, we should be coming out the other side of a three-year transition with one of your large MVPD partners. I just wanted to make sure that was correct, and maybe you can kinda give some color on maybe what kind of pressure that might have created on the financials, kinda looking back at the quarter in the past year. Just any color there would be helpful. Just secondly, it's been a couple years, I think, since you guys gave us a little color on the ARPU between MVPD and OTT in domestic.
Again, if you'd be willing to give us any update on kinda where the two ARPUs stand on the domestic side, that'd be helpful as well. Thanks again, guys.
Go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, it's Jeff. Thanks for the question. Yeah, you would. We saw some pressure on linear ARPU in the quarter. Sequentially, we're coming out of the end of the transition from a fixed deal to an à la carte deal on one of our largest domestic linear MVPDs. That's behind us now, so sequentially, we'll put that behind us, and you'll start to see the linear ARPU normalize going forward. There is, you know, there is a difference between the OTT and digital ARPU versus the linear ARPU, but that, as we've transitioned off of those fixed rate deals over the last couple years. To remind you, by the end of this fiscal year in March, over 88% of our subscribers are either on à la carte or some kind of revenue share.
We really moved off of those low ARPU, high volume deals to be much more of a service that is chosen by the consumer. That linear ARPU has actually then accelerated up to closer to what we see on the OTT side. I think, linear-wise, long term we'll be somewhere between $5.75 and $6.05 in terms of an ARPU on the domestic side. Thanks, Matthew. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead.
Okay, great. Thank you. Just a couple of things. One, I just wanna make sure I understand, you know, the targets that you guys have given before on subscribers for 50-60 million global subs by 2025. I think Starzplay International hitting breakeven, most recently you were saying fiscal 2024, that type of stuff. Is that still what you're saying, or is there a meaningful update there?
Yeah. We still feel really good about that 50-60 million subscriber range by fiscal 2025. We do think that we'll come out and turn positive off the breakeven. We're coming out of calendar run rate calendar 2024. You know, we're really excited about the progress we're making internationally. You know, in the top five or six markets it really drives 75%-85% of the revenue of the plan. One's already turned. Two's will turn in the next couple quarters. In three and four, we have real great line of sight there. We feel really good about the business that we've built and the progress we're seeing in terms of hitting those long-term subscriber goals and success.
Okay. I guess the other question is on kind of, coming at it from a slightly different angle with what I think everyone's been asking about in terms of the impact of this crazy environment on your process.
You know, it seems to me like this process might have taken longer, you know, maybe than you guys expected, certainly than I would've expected, all's well that ends well. I'm just wondering if the crazy market situation with valuations for assets in streaming media everywhere, you know, changing so dramatically, going south so much, if that's really slowed things down, if you know if that's kind of gummed up the works a little bit.
Yeah, Barton. I think we're right on schedule. I know a couple of people have said that, but to do this right, to have the right partners, actually, we think we're right on schedule. In terms of the environment, I mean, obviously, in terms of everybody's stock, I think, you know, everyone is suffering. I would say that I think that certainly the people we're talking to, and I would hope even The Street would see this, is we have a whole different business model than these big streamers. I think they're hurt because, you know, all of them are competing for it. As Jeff has said numerous times, this huge broad base, you know, streaming dominance, if you will, and we're not.
As a matter of fact, we're rooting for each and every one of them, because these are our distributors of the future, and we're clearly differentiated. We are premium, virtually entirely scripted, entirely, not ad-supported. We see sitting on top of their platforms as a great add-on for them, and it's gonna be a great distribution value for us. I don't think The Street is certainly recognizing this. I certainly hope the potential partners we're talking to do. Yeah, in this kind of an environment, obviously it puts a little bit of a damper on virtually everything, obviously. It's distressing to see our stock getting hit when we're having really a fantastic year, huge value creation year.
You know, again, we funded $600 million of investment into content more than last year, and we've done the whole thing, $2.2 billion out of our own free cash flow. I think we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, which is building long-term value between the studio and Starz. You know, again, it's a rough environment, but you know, we think that value will be recognized.
Okay. That's great. Thank you.
Thanks, Barton. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Thomas Yeh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks so much for taking the question. Just a quick point of clarification for Jimmy. You said fiscal 2023 is expected to look a lot like fiscal 2022. Are you suggesting we should kind of be looking at that $400 million ballpark on the adjusted OIBDA that you reported for this year? Is that the right place to be? I just wanted to understand that point. Then for Jeff, in a market that seems to be focusing a lot recently on just broader macro-related uncertainty ahead, I'm wondering if you could opine on just the impact you might see, particularly in the complementary add-on streaming service game, how, if at all, a tougher economic condition might impact your expectations on just general consumer streaming behavior and pricing power. Thanks.
Yeah. Thanks, Thomas. Yeah, I think you're interpreting that pretty close from a ballpark perspective. We're not giving a specific number or range relative to guidance. That was also trying to help you with the cadence of how profits lay out over the fiscal 2023.
Hey, Jeff. Great question. You know, I think if you think back over the last 20-some-odd years in linear MVPD video services and inflationary periods, you know, you've always seen, you know, as people kind of roll back to their house and start to stay home, that the video services continue to support or the entertainment selection or solution of the home. We think you look at our two core demos, that we really are serving something for those two core demos every week, 52 weeks a year, with a lot of Pay-One movies, a lot of series and also library movies at a very, very compelling price point. We think our value proposition is in a really good state based on what we're seeing in the market today.
We also think, as John said, as those broad-based streamers start to really compete and consolidate and bundle, that they lack the destination for our two core demos, and it puts us in a really unique place to do some very unique pricing with them to give, again, further bundled opportunities and value to the consumer and drive our business.
Thanks, Thomas. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Jim Goss with Barrington Research. Please go ahead.
Hi. A couple of things. First, I was going to ask a little bit more about the competitive environment you're describing, and whether an ad-like version of Starz would be contemplated, and how is that the notion of being packaged with some of the other services versus competing with these broader, more comprehensive services, where HBO is included in a broader service and Showtime is included in a broader service, whether how that might affect the competitive situation as well.
Hey, hey, Jeff. You know, currently AVOD is not part of our strategy. It's not included in our, you know, 50-60 million subscriber goal that we've laid out, that we really feel confident that we're gonna hit. We continue to believe that being a premium adult
Non-ad supported service that is complementary to all these broad-based services is a great place for us to be, just like we were in the linear business for the last couple of years and super successful there. We truly believe, based on the conversations that we've had with all of our partners, that we will be included in bundles with each of these broad-based services. Again, we really have a unique programming strategy focusing on those two core demos. Like I said, we really are the destination for those demos, and so adding those to these broad-based streamers in a way that we can put economic value back to the consumer with both companies, I think is what you're gonna see this year and next year as kind of the theme in the business.
Yeah, I think I would add, Jim, that even as an ad-free service, we think there's a lot of running room in the domestic market. I don't know, Jeff, if you want to opine on that.
Yeah, I'm happy to. We think domestically, if you look at the number of households and you back out folks that you know that just won't watch you know video services and then folks that won't watch adult-rated content, there's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 80-90 million households that we can go after domestically. You know, as you saw in the numbers, sitting around 21 million today. A lot of opportunity for us to still grow into those two core demos.
The programming is working. We're lining up. As John talked about, the lining up of the content is really reducing churn. We're seeing that as we put longer term offers in the marketplace, and we're getting customers for over 6-10 months on the service, the churn's coming down sub 5%. We feel really good about the data informing our business, but the content strategy working and stabilizing our revenue base for long-term success.
Okay. Thank you. Can I ask one? In fact, could I ask one last take on what the conversation we started with? As you look at the structural opportunities, are most of them assuming that you would no longer consolidate Starz, or would they be structures that would presume that the partner would not take so much that you wouldn't own a sufficient piece to consolidate it? Are you looking more for strategic partners or financial partners?
Well, Jim, in terms of consolidation, any type of spin, if that were the course of action, without getting into specifics, you wouldn't have continuing consolidation, right? These separate companies, not gonna get into the specifics, but, you know, any transaction would involve delevering in a tax-efficient manner and without any restrictions that would impede shareholder value.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thanks, Jim. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Alan Gould with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking the question. Jimmy, I'm gonna go back to the initial comment about the split as well. It was helpful that you broke up the OIBDA between the studio business and the Starz business. Can you give us some idea how the free cash flow would split up between the two businesses?
No, we don't break that out separately, but you know, there'll be a time for that. You know, each one has their own uniqueness in the context of you know, investment in content and the timing of that. Again, you know, that's not broken out separately at this time.
Well, I know it was a big content investment year for Starz. In the past, their content investment and amortization were pretty close. I think this year, I think you spent about $650 million more in content investment than amortization for the total company or invested in the content. Is that mostly at the Starz business this year?
Well, it's across the board, but certainly there's a lag between the you know, you have the cash spend, and then it's followed by amortization later. But yeah, there's probably a longer lag at the on the Starz side of the business, more so than you know, some of the others.
Okay. One last one. Is it contemplated that Starz gets spun off tax-free, I mean, debt-free?
Yeah, we're not gonna get into specifics on that. Again, any transaction would likely involve delevering. Again, I think, you know, both sides of the house are eminently financeable.
Okay. Thanks for taking the questions.
Sure.
Thanks, Alan. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Matthew Harrigan with Benchmark. Please go ahead.
Thank you. By virtue of your focus on those two demographic segments and just really having cost control pretty much in your DNA for a very long time, you've been able to navigate around some of the cost blows over the last few years. You've had, you know, pretty ample noises coming out of guys like Netflix and Discovery now on the cost containment side. Also with respect to projects, I imagine you're even more desirable as a destination. Can you talk about that and whether.
I'm sure you're not gonna give us discrete, you know, cost bogies for motion picture and TV, but do you feel like there's going to be some favorable trajectory in the margins over time, even apart from all the noise over the last couple of years with COVID and all that? Thanks.
Jimmy?
I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?
Lots of pressures on the cost side, you know, for the industry for motion picture and TV production. You know, you somewhat insulated yourself on that by being focused and having a lot of discipline. With other guys, you know, Netflix and Discovery really trying to contain costs now, do you think that that's gonna have a favorable benefit, you know, for you in terms of getting your margins up as more discipline on paying talent and all that over a period of time? And are you-
Yeah
seeing even more projects now that other people are getting more constrained?
Let me, I'll take that, Matthew. Thanks for the question. Let me say a couple things. One is this year we absorbed about $158 million of COVID costs. That's a cash number. Obviously, a big ton of it was amortized into our business. Don't forget that, you know, when we have COVID costs for a Starz show and we're supplying it from Lionsgate, we're paying 100% of those costs. Again, I think given sort of that amortization into our business, doing our $400 million in this environment was really a good year. Going forward, I'm certainly hoping to mitigate those costs. I hope the costs go down, and we are working really hard right now on it.
Some of it's dependent upon sort of union demands, things like that. But I think, you know, we're expecting that to come down, and that should help our margins. In terms of our overall, I appreciate your saying what you're saying about our ability to control cost. I do think we're really good at it, that's why, and but still delivering quality, which is why, as we said, as Kevin said, you know, we have so many shows at, you know, 25 different networks or platforms. I think we're gonna continue to do that. The main thing that I would say in terms of margin is two things.
One is that the demand for content is higher than ever, and we have more and more buyers, and that's not always the first buyer for content. If you look at what we just did with Schitt's Creek and with Ghosts, there's tremendous demand for the post initial run initial licensee content, especially when it's this premium content and scripted content that we are doing most of, and frankly are really good at. The downstream revenue from these shows is going up.
The demand for those windows is significant, and our ability, frankly, of Jim Packer and Kevin Beggs and our production and distribution teams to window that product to create really interesting creative deals with the networks is really, I think, gonna drive those margins. The last thing that I would say is we are getting these shows are all at both Starz and Lionsgate's production for other networks. These shows are being picked up. Home Economics going to its third season, Ghosts into its second season.
You know, what we are seeing and why the contribution from the television business segment profit is gonna go up. I don't wanna guide, but it's gonna go up this year, and it's gonna go up a lot more in 2024. The reason is that we are getting mature scripted shows, and those margins, obviously, as we go into some version of what you would call syndication, those shows are gonna become more and more valuable. Does that answer your question?
Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks, John. Thanks, Jimmy. Sorry if I was a little verbose.
Thanks, Matt. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Our next question will come from Matthew Thornton with Truist. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. A couple just really quick ones. Corporate expense, as you think about the spin and approach a spin, I'm just curious if there's any opportunity at the corporate expense line or whether that's already pretty efficient. Just secondly, Jimmy, you talked a little bit about OIBDA for fiscal 2023. Curious if you'd give us any color on how you're thinking about free cash flow for the year, at least, you know, at least qualitatively. Thanks again, guys.
Sure. Well, first, on your first question in terms of the overhead. Look, you know, with regards to the spin, not gonna get into the specifics, but certainly, under a separate company structure, you know, each company would be focused on their respective core businesses. You know, it'll enable individual company efficiencies. Perhaps more importantly, a singular focus by each business, likewise, as John alluded to earlier, would provide for a wide range of opportunities, you know, in the marketplace, for each company. With regards to-
Cash flow
With regard to cash flow, my sense there is that, you know, clearly, we have a very resilient structure, from a cash flow perspective, as you've seen, and we will continue to be able to fund from positive free cash flow our increased investment in content and marketing, which is less of a steep curve than it was last year. Going from 2021 to 2022, as Jon noted, with quite a step up in the content spend. By the way, marketing spend goes with that. There's a step up going from 2022 to 2023, but again, I think we can very comfortably handle that, out of positive free cash flow, including our continuing investment in Starzplay International.
Yeah. Let me drill down just a teeny bit more on the first question, which is obviously, we're constantly looking at corporate expense.
That you can assume will be an ongoing initiative of ours too. I think you would assume there will be some service sharing in a spin and that will change the percentages, if you will, you know, where that corporate expense lies. You can assume some of that. I think that what you can assume is corporate expense at either side as each side actually continues to grow their business, potentially, you know, with strategic imperatives if you will, that corporate expense will get spread out over a larger revenue base.
Thanks, Matt. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question will come from Steven Cahall with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Jimmy, just to follow up, you've got a lot of cash on the balance sheet, no maturities for a while. I know leverage over 5x is high, but you've got a lot of discretion based on how you decide to invest in international. Clearly, you all are pretty frustrated by the stock price. You talked about, you know, first half of the year being a little upward pressure on leverage, back half kinda down, but would you consider getting into the market with cash and buying back shares at this point?
Well, look, we, you know, we certainly have authorized levels, but our focus is on delevering and taking our free cash flow and continuing to delever. You'll also note that we took some of that excess cash that was on the balance sheet at the close of the year and subsequently paid down the term loan A of $194 million. To your point, we have no additional maturities until the back part of fiscal 2025.
Thanks.
Thanks, Steve. Operator, could we get the next question, please?
As there are no more questions, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Nilay Shah for any closing remarks.
Thanks, everyone. Please refer to the press releases and events tab under the investor relations section of the company's website for a discussion of certain non-GAAP forward-looking measures discussed on this call. Thank you very much.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.