Starz reported first-quarter 2026 earnings Thursday revealing wider losses, largely due to content-impairment charges — but the media company gave indications it’s improving its financial position one year out from its spinoff from Lionsgate. During a call with analysts later Thursday, Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch announced Stars has exited its Pay-2 film deal agreement with Universal Pictures. The move is being made to help Starz accelerate its planned path to profitability. “The Universal titles which we originally planned to air through calendar ’28 are incredibly popular and bring with them tremendous box office strength,” Hirsch said. “However, due to the high subscriber overlap between Amazon and Starz, these titles are heavily watched before they come to us in the pay to window, this unique dynamic with Amazon has resulted in lower viewership than we originally projected.…