TV networks want it all. Not content to win customers solely to regular ad-driven live programming, a growing number are also making shows accessible online through their own tailored streaming services. CBS (NYSE: CBS) All-Access may be the most serious of these efforts.
Earlier this month, the network unveiled plans to add local and playoff National Football League games to its app, allowing fans to tune in with a smartphone just as easily as they would from the couch, remote in hand. The deal also gives fans who may have been against paying CBS $6 a month for its extra streaming service an reason to reconsider.
“Adding the most watched programming on television, to the most watched network on television, will be a powerful combination as we continue to grow CBS All Access into the future,” CEO Les Moonves said in a press release that also included comments from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Marc DeBevoise, president and COO of CBS Interactive.
The deal also comes on the heels of an October agreement with YouTube to add programming to a web TV service that delivers a combination of original and licensed programming at a fraction of the cost of a traditional cable bundle. In each case, CBS is putting more of its programming in more hands without having to strike arrangements with big distributors, potentially blunting the effect of cord-cutting.
Or at least that’s how it looks on the surface. In truth, the CBS app hadn’t attracted 1 million subscribers as of this writing. Executives are nevertheless targeting 4 million subscribers within five years, The New York Times reports. If they’re right, that would make CBS All-Access a $288 million business at that point. Last year, CBS Corporation grossed $13.9 billion in revenue worldwide. Netflix, the streaming market leader, brought in $6.8 billion in revenue over the same period.
To put it in football terms, while CBS All-Access looks like an interesting rookie among streaming prospects — especially with the NFL — there’s virtually no chance of it finding space in a market lineup dominated by Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.com Prime Video.
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