CBS announced today that it will soon launch a 24/7 livestreaming sports product and will also expand availability of its All Access live OTT product to Canada.
During today’s earnings call, CBS CEO Les Moonves said the new sports service would be like CBSN but for sports and that it would launch later this year.
Moonves said the infrastructure in place for CBSN would be also used for the sports service, and that CBS already has rights in place with NFL, NCAA and others, so he expected the service could keep its costs relatively low for CBS.
“We’re going to look to differentiate ourselves from ESPN,” Moonves said.
CBS also announced it would soon begin international expansion plans for its All Access streaming service.
“We are now gearing up to take the next strategic step with All Access by expanding it into the international marketplace, starting with Canada in the first half of 2018,” said Moonves in a statement (PDF), adding that more countries will be added to the list later.
That expansion could help continue to push All Access and Showtime OTT toward CBS’s repeatedly stated goal of 8 million combined subscribers by 2020. As it stands, CBS said that the services will hit 4 million combined subscribers by the end of this year.
RELATED: DirecTV Now finally signs deal for CBS and Showtime
The digital media strategy announcements CBS made during today’s call arrived on the same day as the broadcaster finally reached a deal for its channels on DirecTV Now.
CBS, as well as Showtime, The CW, Pop and CBS Sports Network will now show up on the virtual MVPD. The deal is in place finally nearly 8 months after DirecTV Now launched.
CBS and its related cable networks are now available on most vMVPDs including YouTube TV, Hulu and FuboTV.