CBS All-Access Streaming Service To Get Re-Branding

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish told investors Thursday the CBS All Access subscription service will undergo a rebranding soon as it expands to incorporate more of the company’s cable brands and library programming, reports Variety.

Speaking on the company’s quarterly earnings call, Bakish also said ViacomCBS is planning to launch a “broad pay streaming product” in multiple international markets over the next 12 months.

CBS All Access will see a user-interface overhaul this summer in preparation for a relaunch with a new name farther down the road. As of Thursday, 100 titles from Paramount Pictures vast film library, including “The Godfather” trilogy, will be made available to CBS All Access subscribers.

Bob Bakish

CBS Corp. was a pioneer among traditional entertainment giants in taking the network and its library over the top in October 2014. The makeover plan under way calls for the service to add more current and library shows from ViacomCBS cable brands such as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, Smithsonian, MTV and Paramount Network. Those brands will also produce original content for the expanded All Access down the road, Bakish said.

ViacomCBS chief financial officer Christina Spade said the CBS All Access and Showtime standalone services at present have 13.5 million subscribers in total and are track to hit 16 million by year’s end.

CBS All Access also reached a milestone Thursday in rolling out as an app on the home-page hub of Comcast’s Xfinity platform. That kind of MVPD distribution — making the app front-and-center for active pay TV customers — is coveted by all subscription streamers.

Bakish also talked up the growth of the ad-supported Pluto TV platform. He called it “the fast-growth, broad-reach gateway to the ViacomCBS streaming world,” meaning that the free Pluto TV service be a magnet to draw paying subscribers to the enhanced CBS All Access and Showtime apps.

Pluto TV at present has about 24 million active monthly users in recent — a number that is expected to reach 30 million by year’s end.