IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 13, 2025--
Today, VIZIO announced a new bundle available with a VIZIO Account, giving customers access to the vast selection of movies and TV shows in the STARZ and AMC+ libraries. If purchased separately, subscriptions to these two leading streaming services would ordinarily cost $20.98 per month, but customers with a VIZIO Account can access both apps with a single subscription for only $13.99 per month.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250113352880/en/
This cost-saving offer gives customers access to some of the hottest titles the entertainment world has to offer. On AMC+, fans can binge popular and critically acclaimed programming like the all-new spellbinding second season of Anne Rice’sMayfair Witches starring Alexandra Daddario and the upcoming third season of hit noir thriller Dark Winds starring Zahn McClarnon, along with full access to targeted streaming services Shudder, Sundance Now and IFC Films Unlimited. With STARZ experiencing rapid growth on VIZIO, viewers can enjoy award-winning movies like John Wick: Chapter 4, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and the Jurassic Park collection, as well as original programming including the hit family crime drama series Power Book III: Raising Kanan, the Season 7 finale of the time-traveling Outlander, and the premiere of the seductive new thriller, The Couple Next Door.
“We are thrilled to offer the incredible entertainment from AMC+ and STARZ at an amazing price with this subscription bundle,” said Katherine Pond, Group Vice President of Platform Content & Partnerships at VIZIO. “Our team is driven by a passion to deliver value for customers, and offering this type of benefit with a VIZIO Account is one more way we do that.”
"We’re excited to partner with VIZIO to provide high-quality, bold programming at exceptional value. Our slate of hit originals targeting women and underrepresented audiences and expansive collection of movies make STARZ an ideal complement to any bundle offering," said Alison Hoffman, President, STARZ Networks. "Bundles like this elevate the streaming experience for customers and enable us to broaden our reach across connected devices."
“We’re excited VIZIO customers will now have even more ways to experience all that AMC+ has to offer, from fan-favorite franchises like The Walking Dead and Anne Rice Immortal Universes to iconic titles from the AMC Networks library like Mad Men, Halt and Catch Fire, Boyhood and more, alongside the compelling programming of STARZ,” said Amy Leasca, AMC Networks EVP, Partner Management & Strategy. “Our focus continues to be on making this great content available to audiences wherever they might choose to watch and partnerships like this one with VIZIO and STARZ are an important part of that strategy.”
To take advantage of the new app bundle, customers can click on the Apps menu item from the left-hand navigation on their VIZIO TV and then select the “Bundles” tab. After they’ve completed the subscription process, customers can view and manage all their subscriptions in one convenient location within VIZIO Account.
The ability to bundle subscriptions is just one more way VIZIO is helping customers to stretch their entertainment dollars. Customers can enjoy even more savings with VIZIO’s current retail prices for their V4K65M Smart TV for $379 and their SV510M Soundbar for $199.
About VIZIO
Founded and headquartered in Orange County, California, our mission at VIZIO Holding Corp. (NYSE: VZIO) is to deliver immersive entertainment and compelling lifestyle enhancements that make our products the center of the connected home. We are driving the future of televisions through our integrated platform of cutting-edge Smart TVs and powerful operating system. We also offer a portfolio of innovative sound bars that deliver consumers an elevated audio experience. Our platform gives content providers more ways to distribute their content and advertisers more tools to connect with the right audience.
For more information, visit VIZIO.com and follow VIZIO on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
VIZIO Launches App Bundle With a Special STARZ and AMC+ Offer (Photo: Business Wire)
BAGHDAD (AP) — An American journalist who was kidnapped in Baghdad had tried to cross from Syria into Iraq three weeks earlier and was initially turned back, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said Shelly Renee Kittleson had also been warned of threats against her in the days before her abduction. A freelance journalist who has worked for years in Iraq and Syria and was described by those who knew her as deeply knowledgeable about the region and the communities she covered, Kittleson was kidnapped from a street in the Iraqi capital Tuesday and remains missing.
Hussein Alawi, an adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, said Kittleson had sought to enter via the al-Qaim crossing from Syria on March 9 but was turned back because she did not have a press work permit and because security concerns due to “the escalation of the war and aerial projectiles over Iraqi airspace as a result of the war on Iran.”
She later entered the country after obtaining a single-entry visa to Iraq valid for 60 days issued to allow foreign citizens stranded in neighboring countries to “transit through Iraq to reach their home countries via available transport routes,” he said.
Kittleson entered Baghdad a few days before she was kidnapped and was staying in a hotel in the capital, he said.
“The incident is being followed closely by Iraqi security and intelligence agencies under the supervision of” al-Sudani, Alawi said. He noted that one suspect believed to be involved in the kidnapping plot has been arrested and is being interrogated.
Iraqi security forces gave chase to her captors and arrested one suspect after the car he was driving crashed, but other kidnappers were able to escape with the journalist in a second car.
An Iraqi intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment, said Iraqi authorities believe she is being held in Baghdad and are trying to locate her and secure her release. He said authorities “have information about the abducting party” but declined to give more details.
U.S. officials have alleged that Kittleson was taken by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-linked Iraqi militia that has been implicated in previous kidnappings of foreigners. The group has not claimed the kidnapping and the Iraqi government has not publicly said anything about the kidnappers' affiliation.
The Iraqi intelligence official said that prior to Kittleson's abduction, Iraqis had contacted U.S. officials to notify them that there was a specific kidnapping threat against her by Iran-affiliated militias.
Dylan Johnson, U.S. assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said on X Tuesday that the “State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them.”
A U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said, “She was contacted multiple times with warnings of the threats against her," including as late as the night before the kidnapping.
Kittleson’s mother, 72-year-old Barb Kittleson, who spoke to The Associated Press at her home in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, said she heard about the kidnapping from a news report on Tuesday and was visited by the FBI at her house on Tuesday night.
When asked how she felt about the kidnapping she said, “Terrible. Scared. I’ll pray for her.”
Barb Kittleson said she last exchanged emails with her daughter on Monday. Shelly Kittleson sent photos of herself from Iraq, her mother said.
“Journalism is what she wanted to do so bad,” Barb Kittleson said. “I wanted her to come home and not do it, but she said, ‘I’m helping people.’”
Surveillance footage from Baghdad that was obtained by the AP shows what seems to be the moment the journalist was kidnapped. It shows two men approaching a person standing on a street corner and ushering the person into the back of a car. There appears to be a brief struggle to shut the car door before the men get into the vehicle and it drives away.
Iran-backed militias in Iraq have launched regular attacks on U.S. facilities in the country since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Bauer reported from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
The street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo)
U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson poses for a cellphone photo in a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo)
A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
A street view shows the street corner in central Baghdad's Saadoun Street where U.S. journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, April 1 2026. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)
