Byron Allen isn’t slowing down after his $120 million takeover of BuzzFeed. Days after securing a majority stake in the struggling digital media company, the billionaire mogul made it clear that his next major target is Starz — and he says he plans to control it one way or another.
“I want to control Starz,” Allen told The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that he recently spent $25 million to acquire an 11 percent stake in the company from former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Allen added that he ultimately wants to pair a subscription streaming platform with the free ad-supported ecosystem he’s already building through Allen Media Group. “SVOD, subscription video on-demand, and AVOD, advertising video on-demand,” Allen explained. “A left hook and a right hook.”
The push for Starz comes at a moment when Allen is rapidly expanding his footprint across television, streaming, and digital media. Earlier this month, Allen finalized a deal giving him a 52 percent majority stake in BuzzFeed, which also includes control of HuffPost.
The acquisition came as BuzzFeed continued struggling with declining ad revenue and losses tied to the collapse of the social-media traffic model that once powered digital publishers like BuzzFeed, Vice, Mashable, and Mic.
Allen said the value of BuzzFeed isn’t tied to old-school listicles or viral quizzes, but to what its audience and content library could become inside a streaming ecosystem. “The world’s two favorite words right now: ‘Free’ and ‘streaming,’” he said, pointing to his Local Now platform as the foundation for a larger ad-supported video strategy fueled by BuzzFeed and HuffPost content.
At the same time, Allen is preparing for another major spotlight moment in television. Beginning May 22, Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen will move into CBS’ 11:35 p.m. slot immediately following the end of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show.
Allen has openly defended CBS’s financial reasoning for ending the franchise, arguing that traditional late-night television has become too expensive for networks chasing shrinking audiences.
“They’re wasting enormous sums of money trying to win that daypart,” Allen said of the late-night landscape.
Instead, he pitched CBS a cheaper solution by leasing the time slot himself. “I said, ‘Let me put that show there and let me buy the time period. I can save you $30 million-$40 million.’ They said, ‘Brilliant idea, let’s do it.’”
Allen’s rise has been decades in the making. The former stand-up comedian famously became the youngest comic ever to perform on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at 18 before building Allen Media Group from what he described as his dining room table.
He recalled calling television stations from payphones after his phones were disconnected and hearing “50,000 no’s” before finally getting syndication deals off the ground.
Now, Allen controls television stations, streaming platforms, weather networks, digital publishers, and a growing late-night presence.
And if his latest comments are any indication, the expansion is far from over.
