ViacomCBS and Altice USA—which operates the Optimum and Suddenlink cable services—reached a new carriage deal that ties together traditional linear and streaming services.
In addition to ViacomCBS channels including CBS, CBS Sports, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and more, Altice USA has rights to ViacomCBS’ suite of streaming services including Paramount+, Showtime OTT, Pluto TV, BET+ and Noggin.
“We are pleased to have reached a new multi-year agreement with our partners at Altice USA that underscores the strength of ViacomCBS’ brands and streaming services,” said Ray Hopkins, president of U.S. Networks Distribution at ViacomCBS, in a statement. “Altice USA through its Optimum and Suddenlink brands is an important partner and we look forward to continuously serving subscribers with our outstanding collection of content.”
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“As Altice USA continues to focus on providing our Optimum and Suddenlink customers with a robust array of content to meet their evolving entertainment needs, we are pleased to reach a new agreement with ViacomCBS that ensures the continued delivery of their networks plus added rights to the ViacomCBS streaming services portfolio,” said Yossi Benchetrit, Altice USA’s chief programming and procurement officer, in a statement.
The new agreement looks similar to ViacomCBS’s recent deal with Charter that also included the company’s streaming services. Tom Montemagno, executive vice president of programming acquisition for Charter, said the inclusion of the ViacomCBS’ SVOD and AVOD services added “flexibilities to adapt for the benefit of our customers while also furthering our strategic interests in the advanced advertising realm and aggregated video store concept with the addition of the streaming apps.”
Altice USA earlier this year debuted Stream, a new Android TV device and platform for its broadband-only subs that provides access to third-party streaming services along with a free, ad-supported multichannel video offering from Altice. The inclusion of Paramount+, Showtime and more in the company’s new deal with ViacomCBS will likely play a significant role on Stream.