ViacomCBS wants to bring you yet ANOTHER video streaming service
posted Saturday Feb 8, 2020 by Scott Ertz
If you read our site often, this will sound familiar to you. A major media company is working to bring a video streaming service to the market that will put a focus on their content. In the past year or so, we've been inundated with new streaming services like Disney+ and CBS All Access. There have also been entries from premium services like Showtime and HBO. We also know of future services like Peacock from NBC. That is in addition to existing services from the likes of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Comedy Central, FX, CNBC, MTV, and more.
Another streaming service?
It makes sense, with the market being so crowded, that yet another streaming service would be pitched. The newly merged ViacomCBS is working on bringing its own streaming service to market.
The new platform will allow the company to have one place to bring all of its content together, whether it be shows form CBS or Showtime, or movies from the vast Viacom and Paramount catalogs. This means that, for the first time ever, all of the Star Trek shows (CBS) and movies (Paramount) will be able to find a single home. But it's a crowded space, with lots of options, and a lot of content.
Where does it fit?
That's a good question. This merged company already operates a ton of streaming services. From CBS All Access, to the network-specific apps for their networks like Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and more. Plus, this behemoth also owns premium channel Showtime, which has its own streaming service.
The most logical move for the company would be to bring an end to the myriad of platforms and offer all of the options under one banner, whatever that might be called, and have tiered subscriptions. The things that were available for free on previous services could remain that way, while things that are hidden behind a paywall, like Star Trek: Picard, could remain that way, as well.
But, good ideas seem to be lost in this era of too many choices. ViacomCBS plans to keep all of the existing platforms operating as-is and introduce the new service as yet another choice. If consumer fatigue hasn't already kicked in, having this many platforms for the same content is likely to get us there.
