Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Moonves Endorses Streaming Skinny Bundles

Les Moonves
CBS CEO Les Moonves called streaming skinny bundles of programming “a great idea whose time has come.”

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank 2016 Media, Internet & Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday, Moonves said that while most current attempts to sell cheaper bundles with fewer networks have not been successful, one that works is “inevitable,” according to Broadcast&Cable.

“You’ve heard the cliché over and over again, people are tired of paying for things they don’t want to watch. That’s finally going to change,” Moonves said. “Someone’s going to figure out how to do this and how to give people what they want to watch and it’s not for $100 a month, it will be for $35 or $39 dollars a month where you’ll really get the 12 to 15 or 18 channels that you care about. And not get the karate channel for 25 cents a month.”

Moonves said CBS’ own streaming services continue to do well, although he declined to provide any subscriber numbers.

He said the company was considering offering a combination of CBS All Access and the Showtime OTT service in a way that would provide a discount on the current prices of each service.
Marketing for the services will likely ramp up next year when the new Star Trek series launches on CBS All Access he said.

B&C reports Moonves also said that talks about securing streaming rights for NFL football games on CBS All Access are continuing and that he predicted a deal was inevitable. He said the league would get a cut of CBS’ subscriber revenue and possibly bonuses as the streaming services' sub count rose.

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