ViacomCBS is readying the launch of a subscription streaming video service that will combine the free and paid services of CBS, content from outlets including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and Showtime plus feature films from Paramount Pictures, Reuters reports, citing “a source familiar with the matter.”
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. 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.
MacDailyNews Take: How much more will this sponge suck up? And, does this mean that the free Pluto TV app on our Apple TVs will be going away?
Really getting to be a crowded field. I’m sure I’ll give it a try, but imagine it will become part of a rotation, where I may pay for it for a month, watch the shows I want to see, then drop it and move on to the next.