As CBS prepares to put bona fide original content — like the upcoming online-only version of Big Brother and next year’s new Star Trek: Discovery series — on its $6/month All Access streaming service, the network realizes that hey, maybe people will pay a bit more to avoid having to watch all those flippin’ commercials.
The company announced today that All Access users can “upgrade” to the commercial-free tier of the service for $9.99/month, which is $4/month more than the current rate.
All Access is CBS’s answer to Hulu, the streaming venture jointly owned by the parent companies of NBC, ABC, and FOX. That higher-profile streaming service offers a bigger library of shows and movies than All Access, and also produces original content.
Meanwhile, All Access had basically just been a way to either watch Big Brother feeds or spend more NCIS time with on-demand Mark Harmon. The network is hoping that the service’s first real online-only content will bring in new subscribers — who they hope will ante up for ad-free streaming.
That includes Big Brother feedsters. While the live feeds from the BB house are constantly interrupted for “awesome” competitions, not to mention every time an addle-brained houseguest sings a copyrighted song, the network does not break up the monotony with ads.
However, CBS recently confirmed that the new original content on All Access would have up to 12 minutes an hour of advertising. We’ll have to wait to see whether that holds true for all 24 hours of the day for the Big Brother live feeds, or if the service will concentrate those ads during the hours when the hamsters are actually awake in the house.
The big question is whether $6 or $10 a month is worth the investment just for one or two original shows and access to a bunch of old CBS crime procedurals.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist