• ViacomCBS to launch enhanced streaming service
  • No-name platform will use legacy content
  • Formal announcement expected end of the month

ViacomCBS rebranded logo at New York HQ (Jer123 shutterstock)

ViacomCBS: To update its existing streaming service CBS All Access 

Source: Jer123 / Shutterstock

ViacomCBS is building on its current CBS All Access service by bundling cable channels, live news and sports into a new platform expected to launch later this year. 

According to a person familiar with the matter, the newly combined ViacomCBS is working to align all media assets for a new streaming service with ad-free and premium subscription options including programming from MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount movies studio.

The service is expected to be unveiled with further details when ViacomCBS executives report the company earnings later this month, reported The Wall Street Journal. It is reportedly taking steps to ensure all its programming across the media company’s properties are available through one platform.

The service is yet to be formally announced by the company, however. Adding to the already crowded streaming market, the offering is likely to include live and on-demand and news sports and entertainment with the likes of Top Gun, Mission Impossible and Star Trek to be drawn cards for consumers.

In a strategy different from other big streaming service launches it will offer a higher-priced premium version of the service which will include Showtime shows.

However, according to the source the company is not expected to invest multi-billions of dollars into the new service but draw on its existing properties.

ViacomCBS was among the first of the big media companies to launch streaming services in 2014. CBS All Access, which is smaller in scope compared to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, costs between $6 and $10 per month, while its Showtime streaming service, costs $11 per month and launched in 2015.

Viacom purchased Pluto TV, a free service, last year for $340 million and it is likely it will play a big role in ViacomCBS’s streaming video strategy.

In a report from the New York Times, 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.

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