Report: ViacomCBS To Unveil Expanded Streaming Service

ViacomCBS Inc. is taking steps to make programming across the media company’s properties available through one video-streaming offering, according to The Wall Street Journal citing a person familiar with the matter, building upon its current CBS All Access service.

The service, which will be unveiled when ViacomCBS reports earnings later this month, will combine content from many of the company’s cable channels—including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central—with offerings from CBS’s media properties, including CBS News and live sports, the person said.

Also included will be some content from ViacomCBS’s Paramount film library and some channels from its ad-supported streaming service, Pluto TV, the person said. The service also will have a premium version that includes content from the Showtime cable channel.

The company is planning to offer multiple pricing tiers for consumers, including a higher-cost option without ads and an ad-supported version at a lower cost, the person said. Specific details about the pricing and name of the service couldn’t be learned. Pluto TV will remain available as a standalone service, the person also said.

ViacomCBS combined last year, part of an effort on the part of controlling owner Shari Redstone to compete with rival companies that merged to create major media behemoths.

Many companies, including AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, the Walt Disney Co. and Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, are pooling shows and movies from across their vast content libraries to launch direct-to-consumer streaming services to compete with the likes of Netflix Inc.

ViacomCBS plans to work with pay-TV companies to distribute the service, the person said, adding that it planned to propose terms that would be mutually beneficial for the company and its distribution partners. It has struck long-term carriage agreements with pay-TV distributors that require much of the company’s content to air on TV first, so finding a workaround will be crucial to the service’s success.