Urban Movie Channel announced they have acquired a multi-year license of over 40 hours of urban-themed content from Starz Digital to be debuted on the channel over the summer.

“We are excited to have acquired an array of titles from Starz Digital that will bolster our UMC content library,” said Angela Northington, RLJ Entertainment’s SVP of Urban Content Acquisitions. “This package is comprised of titles ranging from comedy and drama to action/thriller and documentary. It is in line with what our Chairman, Bob Johnson, has envisioned for growing the UMC digital channel,” she concluded.

Mara Winokur, Senior Vice President at Starz Digital commented, “Starz Digital is always seeking new opportunities to identify relationships with distributors on emerging digital platforms.  This recent UMC agreement brings strong titles from our portfolio of urban library programming with an on-target digital outlet that is a great match for the content.”

Among the titles secured in the Starz Digital package are five seasons of the popular Martin Lawrence Presents: First Amendment stand-up STARZ comedy series featuring actor, writer, and comedian Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys I & II, Big Momma’s House) as host and presenter; Phunny Business featuring comedian Dave Chappelle (Chappelle’s Show, Half Baked), and the late comedian and actor Bernie Mac (The Bernie Mac Show, Ocean’s Eleven); and Lies and Illusions starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Jerry Maguire, Men of Honor) and Christian Slater (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, True Romance); and the award-winning History of Jazz: Oxygen for the Ears documentary featuring jazz giants Esperanza Spalding, Thelonius Monk, Norah Jones, and many more.