Starz Encore is an American premium television channel owned by Starz Inc. a subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment and headquartered at the Meridian International Business Center complex in Meridian, Colorado, United States. Launched as Encore on 1 April 1991, its programming features mainly older and recent theatrically released feature films, although some of its multiplex channels also carry acquired television series. It is the sister channel of Starz and MoviePlex. , Starz Encore's programming was available to approximately 34.026 million U.S. households that had a subscription to a multichannel television provider (30.918 million of which receive Starz Encore's primary channel at minimum). Prior to 2018, Starz Encore outpaced HBO for the largest subscriber reach of any American premium channel. (According to February 2015 Nielsen estimates, Starz Encore had 40.54 million pay subscribers vs. HBO's 35.8 million subscribers.) Starz Encore has a higher subscriber base than its competitors and sister channels because, although Starz and Starz Encore are often sold together in a singular package, some digital cable, telco and satellite providers offer the Starz Encore multiplex separately from Starz as part of an a la carte tier in which it is packaged with other commercial-free and advertiser-supported film-oriented channels (such as Epix, FX Movie Channel and LMN). Therefore, Starz Encore subscribers do not necessarily have to subscribe to Starz in order to receive the channel. History Early focus on 1960s, 1970s and 1980s movies Encore launched at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 1, 1991, on four cable systems that were operated by Tele-Communications Inc. (both TCI and Liberty Media, both of which jointly owned Encore initially, were controlled by John Malone). The channel debuted with an introduction by founder John Sie, who served as the president of the network from its launch until 1999 and CEO until his retirement in 2004, which was then followed by Encore's first movie telecast, the 1980 comedy film 9 to 5. Encore was the first major U.S. premium channel to debut in almost 11 years, since Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 – at the time of Encore's launch, Cinemax, HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel were its only competitors (Encore was the only upstart premium channel that managed to gain any headway with those services; other premium channels that debuted prior to Encore's launch, such as Spotlight and Home Theater Network, were unable to compete with those four channels and would eventually