ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish gave a small update on the network’s upcoming rebrand for CBS All Access on Tuesday.
After a preview launch of the beefed up streaming service, which will get an infusion of content from Viacom networks, the suped-up version of All Access will have its full launch sometime in 2021. Bakish made the updates during a webcast presentation for the Credit Suisse 22nd Annual Virtual Communications Conference.
“We have a good position in the older segment with the current All Access product, but this really brings a lot of young audience to the table,” Bakish said, adding they will add 15,000 hours of additional content, that includes a “much broader slate” of original content that will largely be based on franchise IP. “We do anticipate a full launch of the to be rebanded service in 2021.”
The revamped CBS All Access will include an expanded slate of ViacomCBS programming, including content from Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, MTV, BET and Paramount. The updated service will also include national and local news from more than 200 CBS affiliates, live and on-demand; more sports are coming as well, with the NFL, NCAA and PGA, among other leagues and events, available to stream.
Bakish noted the new additions will “transform All Access into a super-service.”
Although ViacomCBS’s Paramount has cut licesning deals with Netflix, and Comedy Central’s “South Park” will stream on HBO Max, Bakish notes they will start to move away from these lucrative licensing deals in favor of keeping their franchises for their own platforms.
CBS All Access currently runs customers $5.99 per month for ad-supported streaming and $9.99 for ad-free streaming. The service, together with Showtime’s streaming subscribers, hit 13.5 million customers by the end of Q1, up big from the approximately 8 million the two combined for at the same time last year.