ViacomCBS headquarters is pictured in New York City, New York, U.S. December 5, 2019. REUTERS/Kate Munsch
Update (2/20/2020): ViacomCBS will 'expand' CBS All Access streaming service this year, with the service getting more content from Viacom properties like Nickelodeon and Comedy Central!
Newly combined ViacomCBS is working on combining media assets for a new streaming service that will build on CBS All Access, according to people familiar with the matter, CNBC reports.
While ViacomCBS executives haven’t made any firm decisions, they are considering creating a service with advertisements that will combine CBS All Access with Viacom assets including Nickelodeon, Pluto TV, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures, said the people, who asked not to be named because the product discussions are private.
An ad-free version will also be available, and a premium version of the streaming service will include Showtime, the people said. ViacomCBS executives haven’t decided on a name for the service, nor a price, though the base service will probably be less than $10 a month, two of the people said.
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish has thus far declined to answer questions about the company’s streaming strategy, but ViacomCBS executives will speak about the planned service during the company’s fourth quarter earnings conference call on Feb. 20, said the people. ViacomCBS will also reveal statistics about total paid subscribers for its existing streaming services and give revenue figures for the first time, said the people. Chief Digital Officer Marc Debevoise, Pluto TV CEO Tom Ryan and President of U.S. Networks Distribution Ray Hopkins have spearheaded the effort, along with Bakish, two of the people said.
ViacomCBS is in the awkward position of being simultaneously early and late to the streaming wars. CBS launched CBS All Access in October 2014, more than five years before Disney+, Apple TV+ and the coming debuts of NBCUniversal’s Peacock and AT&T’s HBO Max. But after merging on Dec. 31, the new company has added heft to create a new streaming service that it feels can compete with the largest streaming products.
The new product could be one of the final significant streaming offerings to hit the market as traditional media companies all prepare for a post-cable TV future. ViacomCBS hopes consumers will see the value in the combination of live sports with movies, strong kids programming from Nickelodeon and Noggin, and both scripted and unscripted programming, the people said.
A ViacomCBS spokesman declined to comment.
Building on CBS All Access
While CBS’s broadcast network is still free over the air with an antenna, CBS All Access has appealed to millions of Americans who have either cut the cord on traditional cable or want the ability to watch TV programs whenever and wherever they are. CBS hasn’t broken out the exact number of subscribers for CBS All Access, but has said that the service combined with Showtime has more than 10 million subscribers.
CBS All Access, currently priced at $5.99 with ads and $9.99 without, allows subscribers to watch all of CBS’s programming, including live sports such as the National Football League, on any device. Like other streaming services, CBS has also made original programming for the service, including Star Trek: Picard and a reboot of The Twilight Zone.
With the success of CBS All Access, breaking their record for sign ups last month around the premiere of Star Trek: Picard, and the growth of the free streaming service Pluto TV, ViacomCBS could be in a strong position to become a stronger force in streaming.
Viacom’s streaming strategy prior to combining with CBS has been to sell a number of small niche products, such as $7.99-per-month Noggin, a preschool-focused service from Nickelodeon with popular kids series such as Dora The Explorer and Paw Patrol, and BET+, a $9.99-per-month service that includes original programming from Tyler Perry.
ViacomCBS’s plan is to keep these streaming services in existence, said the people, while marketing the new service to current subscribers. Similar to how AT&T’s WarnerMedia priced HBO Max at the same price as HBO, ViacomCBS executives imagine many current subscribers will upgrade to the larger umbrella subscription product when they realize how much more programming they’ll get for little extra money.
The new service will also be the first home for Paramount Pictures films, which have been previously licensed to existing streaming services such as Netfilx and Amazon Prime Video. There are about 3,600 Paramount movies, including The Godfather and the Star Trek movies, as well as a number of Nickelodeon Movies. ViacomCBS will also have exclusive access to another 700 movies through a 49 percent ownership stake in Miramax.
The news follows CBS All Access adding Nickelodeon programming in January.
More from TheWrap:
ViacomCBS Preps Streaming Service That Would Combine CBS All Access With Paramount, Other Assets
Company is weighing offering both an ad-supported and premium version that would include Showtime
ViacomCBS could be preparing to enter the streaming era in a much bigger way.
The company is planning a streaming service that would combine CBS All Access with the rest of its assets, including Paramount, Pluto TV and Viacom’s stable of channels. The news was first reported by CNBC, and later confirmed to TheWrap by an individual with knowledge of the discussions. The company is considering both an ad-supported and premium option, the latter of which would include Showtime.
ViacomCBS declined to comment.
CNBC reported that discussions are still preliminary and no name or price point has been settled, though it would likely be less than $10 a month.
If ViacomCBS were to roll up all of its assets into one major streaming offering, it would be an about-face for the company. CEO Bob Bakish has argued multiple times that ViacomCBS is better off keeping its various smaller streaming services — along with CBS All Access, the company has an OTT-version of Showtime, BET+ and Nickelodeon’s Noggin. Viacom acquired the free, ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV last year.
The idea was to pollinate CBS All Access with content from Viacom networks like MTV and Nickelodeon, while also beefing up its Showtime streaming service with Paramount films. “Demand for content from third parties is incredible. And the combination of our assets and capabilities — with the fact that some of our competitors are pulling back — makes this sector an enormous opportunity,” Bakish said during the company’s most recent earnings call in November.
Viacom and CBS completed their merger last December and last week announced that former NBCUniversal executive George Cheeks would be taking over as head of CBS assets, with Joe Ianniello leaving the company.
ViacomCBS would be entering an increasingly-crowded streaming field that is set to get three new entrants this spring with Quibi, Peacock and HBO Max. Disney, which launched Disney+ last November, has already amassed nearly 30 million subscribers.
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From Deadline:
ViacomCBS Will Raise Its Streaming Game With New, “Differentiated” Service
Newly merged Viacom-CBS is planning to launch a streaming service that will combine CBS All Access with other Viacom assets, a person familiar with the company’s plans confirmed to Deadline.
Programming from Pluto TV, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures would be combined with that of All Access and Showtime. The company plans to lift the veil on certain details about the offering on February 20, when it releases its first quarterly earnings since completing the merger in December.
The new service would be differentiated product from what exists now. It would combine sports, news live viewing and the full breadth and depth of the company’s expanded portfolio across demos, genres and geographies, insiders indicate.
CNBC had the first report of the company’s plans.
There would be an ad-free version and a premium version that includes Showtime. There’s been no final decision, name or price, although it would likely be less than $10 a month for the basic tier.
This would be a bold and in a sense surprising move by ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish. In addition to divulging more plans for the new product he is expected to go in more depth than ever before into the metrics and financials of the company’s other streaming assets, including revenue figures.
Chief Digital Officer Marc Debevoise, Pluto TV CEO Tom Ryan and president of U.S. Networks Distribution Ray Hopkins have been working with Bakish on the initiative.
ViacomCBS has clearly felt left out in the cold as the stream war broke out with four new services launched or planned between last fall and this spring. Apple and Disney have launched subscription offerings and NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia will debut major new services in the spring. All are aimed at closing the gap with Netflix.
In the case of ViacomCBS, the delicate strategic balance is how to continue to make lucrative licensing deals to third parties and also in some cases hold programming back as fuel for company initiatives. In the latter months of 2019, the company sold streaming rights to Comedy Central mainstay South Park to HBO Max in a rich deal, and also set a nine-figure agreement with Netflix for certain Nickelodeon content.
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From Variety:
ViacomCBS to Expand CBS All Access Streaming Platform With More Cable Content
ViacomCBS plans to expand and possibly rebrand the CBS All Access subscription service with more content from MTV, Comedy Central and other traditional Viacom cable channels.
ViacomCBS is expected to unveil a broader streaming strategy on its Feb. 20 earnings call, which will mark the company’s first financial report since the reunion of Viacom and CBS Corp. was completed in December.
The company is looking to build on the foundation of CBS All Access to develop a broader streaming offering that would be a mix of subscription and advertising-supported content. Now that the companies are joined, there’s a big push to leverage all of its assets to transform the company for the on-demand era. ViacomCBS also aims to give a bigger streaming platform to its assets in news and sports programming in an effort to differentiate its offering from the plethora of entertainment-focused streaming players.
ViacomCBS declined to comment.
The plan that is shaping up calls for the platform to add programs from MTV, Comedy Central, BET and other prominent cablers under the ViacomCBS umbrella to make the CBS All Access platform more attractive to a broader range of subscribers. ViacomCBS is also evaluating options for melding CBS All Access with its newly acquired Pluto TV service, which serves up a wide range of ad-supported on-demand content from the ViacomCBS vault and other content owners.
CBS All Access is offered at present for $5.99 with commercials included or $9.99 for the ad-free option. It’s unclear whether ViacomCBS will rename All Access or boost the pricing on the platform. CBS All Access in late November added on-demand access to a number of kid-friendly programs from Viacom’s Nickelodeon in an effort to better round out its programming menu. Sources said CBS All Access is a natural platform for next-day access to shows such as Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” or any of MTV’s buzzy reality series.
But even as it looks to grow bigger in streaming, ViacomCBS will not make the full linear feeds of its cable channels available in the same way that CBS All Access offers 24/7 live linear streams from CBS affiliate stations around the country — another dimension that separates CBS All Access from its competition. The company in some cases is restricted from offer its suite of cable channels on a purely over the top platform by its carriage deals with major MVPDs such as Comcast, Charter and DirecTV. The burgeoning ViacomCBS plan resembles NBCUniversal’s strategy to seed an audience for the largely ad-supported Peacock streaming venture set to launch on April 15.
The film vault of Viacom’s Paramount Pictures will also be a rich source of content for an expanded streaming offering, although the first pay-TV window for the studio’s new theatrical output is contractually bound to MGM’s Epix for the near term.
Moreover, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish has been on a fence-mending tour of major distributors over the past few years since he took the reins of Viacom. At a time when the company’s stock price has taken a double-digit drop, ViacomCBS can’t afford to put a strain on its newly improved relationships with the distributors that provide the lion’s share of the company’s earnings.
CNBC first reported on the movement in ViacomCBS’ streaming strategy.
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From Reuters:
ViacomCBS to launch new streaming platform: source
(Reuters) - ViacomCBS Inc is preparing to launch a subscription streaming video service that will combine the free and paid services of CBS, programming from brands including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET as well as films from the Paramount movies studio, a source familiar with the matter said.
The yet-unnamed new service is expected to build on top of CBS All-Access and include live and on-demand news sports and entertainment spanning the portfolio of its brands. Blockbuster franchises from the Paramount library, such as “Top Gun”, “Mission Impossible”, “The Godfather” and “Star Trek”, are eventually expected to be available on the service.
A higher-priced, premium version of the service will include Showtime shows.
The company is not expected to plow the multi-billions of dollars of new investment into the service, the source said. Instead it will build from the existing properties.
It is not clear when it will launch.
Details of the service have yet to be finalized. Executives are expected to discuss the strategy next Thursday when the company reports fourth-quarter financial results, the source said.
CNBC reported the effort earlier on Thursday.
ViacomCBS will become the latest media company to wade in the big media and tech streaming war after Apple Inc and Walt Disney Co launched services in November to compete with streaming giant Netflix Inc.
Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal is also expected to launch its Peacock streaming service that will offer free and subscription versions.
ViacomCBS was among the first of the big media companies to launch streaming services, albeit smaller in scope. CBS All Access, which costs between $6 and $10 per month, launched in 2014. The Showtime streaming service, which costs $11 per month, launched in 2015.
Viacom purchased Pluto TV, a free service, last year for $340 million and it will play a big role in ViacomCBS’s streaming video strategy.
The company has avoided the high stakes battle among Disney and the tech and telecom giants to furnish new services with original shows and movies and has pursued a strategy of creating and producing shows for other services including Amazon and Netflix. That will continue, the source said.
Paramount’s huge library will be a big part of the service, but the new service will not be the “first home” for Paramount films after theatrical release, the source said. Epix, a pay TV network owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, owns those rights.
CBS and Viacom completed their merger in December, reuniting media mogul Sumner Redstone’s U.S. entertainment empire.
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From CNET:
ViacomCBS will 'expand' CBS All Access streaming service this year
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish teases that the service will be getting content from Viacom properties like Nickelodeon and Comedy Central.
ViacomCBS is upping its digital offerings with a revamped streaming service to better compete with Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, HBO Max and Peacock in the ongoing streaming wars. The changes will come later this year and build on CBS' existing All Access streaming service, CEO Bob Bakish said during an earnings conference call Thursday.
(Disclosure: ViacomCBS is the parent company of CBS Interactive, which owns CNET.)
ViacomCBS, via its earnings release and its official Twitter feed, said the new service will "expand CBS All Access by adding the company's scaled assets in film and TV." First launched in 2014, CBS All Access features CBS programming, a library of older films, and original shows created for the platform, such as The Good Fight and Star Trek: Picard. Available with ads for $6 per month or ad-free for $10, the streaming service also includes the ability to watch live feeds of CBS stations in select markets.
Viacom and CBS merged last year, reuniting what previously were two sister companies. The merger joins Viacom's Paramount film and TV studios and its cable TV channels such as BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon with CBS' sports, entertainment and news offerings, including CBS News, CBS Sports Network and Showtime.
Bakish said during the earnings call that the service will have "30,000 episodes of TV and up to 1,000 movies" from the company's various brands.
"We will add significant content from @Nickelodeon, @ComedyCentral, @MTV, @BET, and @SmithsonianChan – in addition to popular films from the @ParamountPics library. And we will do this at scale -- to the tune of approximately 30,000 episodes of TV & up to 1,000 movies.” -BB $VIAC
— ViacomCBS (@ViacomCBS) February 20, 2020
In a press release accompanying earnings, ViacomCBS referred to the expanded service as a "House of Brands."
In addition to CBS All Access, ViacomCBS also offers streaming services around BET (the $10 per month BET Plus), premium cable channel Showtime ($11 per month) and free streaming service Pluto TV.
Viacom has deals with other services. Last year, the company struck a multiyear deal with Netflix around kid-focused Nickelodeon. Under this deal, Nickelodeon will produce original animated features and television shows for the streaming giant. South Park, which runs on Comedy Central, will stream on AT&T's HBO Max service.
Some Nickelodeon content is also available on CBS All Access.
Bakish says more details will be shared in the "months ahead," with a "soft launch" of the platform set for later this year.
A spokesman wasn't immediately available to answer additional questions about the service.
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More Nick: Netflix and Nickelodeon Form Multi-Year Output Deal to Produce Original Animated Films and Series!
Originally published: Thursday, February 06, 2020.
Additional source: Cord Cutters News.
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