It was just a matter of time before Showtime joined the growing list of content options embracing OTT delivery, considering HBO tipped their OTT hand a couple of weeks ago. CBS (parent company of Showtime) CEO Les Moonves revealed the Showtime move during an earnings conference call yesterday.
As with HBO, the details regarding the upcoming OTT offer are very sketchy at best. For Showtime, even less so than HBO.
Showtime OTT
Regarding a Showtime OTT offer, Moonves says, “We could say fairly definitively, sometime in ‘15, there will be some service from Showtime.” That leaves a lot of room for them to tailor their Showtime OTT offer. We know they plan to target 2015 for some form of Showtime OTT offer, but that’s about all we know.
These large legacy media companies realize they need to get into OTT, they’re just not exactly sure how to yet. Next year is shaping up to be an interesting one for OTT. Expect to see a similar offer from competing premium channel Starz in the near future.
CBS has already launched an OTT offer for CBS content, called CBS All Access. That product retails for $6 per month. I’m sure they will learn a lot from that effort and apply some lessons to the forthcoming Showtime OTT channel.
CBS also announced a new OTT news channel CBS N, which launches today. It will be available via OTT streaming devices including Roku and Amazon Fire TV, as well as on mobile devices.
