CBS STREAMING SERVICE COMING TO CANADIAN SCREENS IN 2018.
‘Huge opportunity to go direct to the consumer’
CBS Corp.’ s plan to launch its online television streaming service in Canada is yet another indication the traditional broadcast world is moving online to cater to consumer demands, industry researchers say.
The American network a nd media o wner a nnounced Monday it will make CBS All Access available in Canada in early 2018. It’s the first international foray for its three- year- old streaming service, which CBS estimates will have four million subscribers by the end of 2017.
“We are very aware of the international success that other streaming companies have had. We now see huge opportunity for CBS to go direct to consumer on a much bigger scale worldwide,” CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in a conference call.
Of course, Canadians won’t have access to all of the platform’s 9,000 TV episodes given Corus Entertainment Inc., BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. have already purchased broadcast rights for CBS content such as The Big Bang Theory or Survivor.
Researchers believe content availability could limit uptake north of the border, but say CBS’ entry marks a growing appetite for streaming over TV subscriptions. It follows the recent launch of sports streaming platform DAZN ( pronounced “da zone”) and the December 2016 launch of Amazon Prime Video.
“Individually, I don’t think they will be substantial in impact but collectively they are signalling where the market is going — to on- demand- streaming slowly but surely,” Solutions Research Group president Kaan Yigit said Tuesday.
Yigit sees CBS as a niche play, given the popularity of Netflix compared to Bell Media’s CraveTV or Amazon Prime Video. While DAZN is also niche, it may appeal to a deeper pool of hard- core sports fans, he said.
As it stands, 60 per cent of Canadians have at least one digital video, music or other content subscription such as Netflix or Spotify, according to SRG data. Yigit questions whether more people will subscribe to multiple services. He expects the volume of people who do so will expand slowly as worthy services become available over the next 18 to 24 months.
These streaming services should give the traditional TV players a lot to worry about, said Brahm Eiley of Convergence Research Group.
Not only do they give consumers more options, but CBS may also be able to use the online platform as leverage when negotiating the rights to its shows, Eiley said. While content rights will likely delay the entry of other major streaming services such as Hulu ( it has four owners) and HBO GO into the Canadian market, Eiley expects they will enter in time.
“All of them together are obviously a huge gamechanger,” he said. “It’s just another sign in the kind of ongoing saga of the decline of traditional television.”
Television subscription revenue in Canada fell two per cent to $ 8.7 billion in 2016 as subscriber volumes dropped one per cent to 11.1 billion, according to the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission. While cord- cutting declined slightly with approximately 128,000 people cancelling their subscriptions last year compared to 158,000 in 2015, according to the CRTC, the market has remained relatively flat despite the growing number of households in the country.
Meantime, Netflix reported in July that it grew to about 52 million subscribers in the U. S. and an additional 52 million internationally. It’s that market that CBS’ CEO said it wants to tap by expanding the amount of content it has available on its over-the-top platform.
“You combine all this stuff together, the revolution is happening,” Eiley said. “The revolution will not be televised, it’ll be streamed.”
CBS did not reveal which shows will be available on CBS All Access in Canada, nor did it release the pricing. In the States, it costs US$ 5. 99 per month and US$ 9.99 per month with no commercials.