Showtime to Cord Cutters: We’re Listening
For those keeping score at home, go ahead and add Showtime to list of companies for cord cutters to support. On an earnings call on Wednesday, CBS — parent company of Showtime — CEO Leslie Moonves stated standalone Showtime will be available in 2015 “fairly definitively.” The news was first reported by Julia Boorstin, editor of CNBC’s Media Money, and this move by Showtime is coming off the heels of a similar move by competitor HBO.
Though it may not be a hard “yes!” CBS already has a large online infrastructure in place. With their CBS All-Access (available for 5.99 per month) and free CBSN site/app that launched today, the company is clearly headed in new direction.
Be it championship boxing, 60 Minutes Sports or any of their sports documentaries, there is no shortage of quality programming for fans on Showtime. As more and more people decide to move away from dozens — if not hundreds — of unused television channels, it’s encouraging to see the content producing companies shift as well.
You can catch David spouting off about baseball, soccer, esports and other things by following him on twitter, @davidwiers.
Super, now CBS just has to support the station in my area (despite being in the 14th largest market it’s website says it’s unavilable), and the other networks following suit and we’ll have something really useful.
I don’t think I’d pay 5.99 for CBS only programming, but it’s all good seeing the company at least be willing to go with a streaming option.
Uverse/Charter/Whatever could easily get my money each month if they offered an a la carte system, but that will never happen.