Will CBS All Access Remain Viable in the Streaming Wars?

[The Overlord]

Will CBS All Access Remain Viable in the Streaming Wars? CBS All Access is the current home to new Star Trek shows, but a lot of powerful new players: Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBC Universal are entering the fray.

CBS All Access has Star Trek, but Disney+ has Star Wars, Marvel and Disney's classic films. Despite about to merge Viacom, CBS All Access will not feature South Park, because Viacom sold the streaming rights to Warner Brothers for 500 million dollars. Warner Brother's HBO Max service will have all the HBO shows, DC comics content, Cartoon Network shows for the kids and Warner Brothers library of movies.

Besides Star Trek, what does CBS All Access have to be competitive? CBS All Acess doesn't even have Showtime content, while Warner Brothers are putting almost everything into HBO Max.

CBS All Access may be the home for Star Trek, but it seems like the weakest streaming service around. How stable is Star Trek's future if it is a weak streaming service?

 

[Lord Garth]

I don't even want to hazard a guess. It's hard to predict. Streaming services are still young. The Big Four Networks are big, so they'll be able to stick it out. For the sake of argument, if CBS All Access falls through, I'm guessing Star Trek's future will be on Amazon or Netflix. Probably Amazon. Not that I'm writing off CBSAA or its NBC counterpart.

Here's an interesting video that shows what the most popular websites were, month-by-month, from January 1996 to October 2019. It's interesting to see who was once prominent, who gave way, and when what we consider prominent now emerged.

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I imagine streaming services might go through a similar state of flux before the dust settles.

 

[NCC-73515]

Picard will give it a boost...

 

[rahullak]

Picard is also on Amazon internationally.

 

[The Habs Fan]

I predict that Viacom/CBS will be bought by Amazon or Apple in the future. Right now everyone is coming out with their own streaming service. Eventually a bunch of them will be bought and merged together.

 

[BillJ]

CBS has the money and assets to play the long game. I wouldn’t be counting them out yet.

 

[The Overlord]

I don't even want to hazard a guess. It's hard to predict. Streaming services are still young. The Big Four Networks are big, so they'll be able to stick it out. For the sake of argument, if CBS All Access falls through, I'm guessing Star Trek's future will be on Amazon or Netflix. Probably Amazon. Not that I'm writing off CBSAA or its NBC counterpart.

Here's an interesting video that shows what the most popular websites were, month-by-month, from January 1996 to October 2019. It's interesting to see who was once prominent, who gave way, and when what we consider prominent now emerged.

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

I imagine streaming services might go through a similar state of flux before the dust settles.

I do think we can predict based on the strength of each services libraries and CBS All Access has the weakest library of content of the major streaming sites. They do not even have the rights to their old flagship show, Big Bang Theory, that is going to HBO Max.

In the streaming wars, content is king and CBS is going have to find a way to get way more content quickly because these other companies are bigger and throwing almost everything they got into their services.

Picard will give it a boost...

But I do not think any streaming service can thrive on the back of one franchise, even one as popular as Star Trek. Disney and Warner Brothers are relying on many franchises to support their streaming services. Disney has Star Wars and a million other things, CBS has Star Trek, the Twilight Zone and then what, the Good Fight?

CBS has the money and assets to play the long game. I wouldn’t be counting them out yet.

But Warner Brothers is throwing everything into HBO Max. Disney is putting a lot of their content on Disney+ and I bet Peacock will have almost everything Univeral owns on it. Meanwhile, despite Viacom and CBS merging, none of the Viacom stuff is on CBS All Access. Heck, none of the Showtime stuff is on CBS All Acess, CBS All Access is a weaker service because it does not have the full might of the CBS/Viacom library behind it.

CBS All Access doesn't even have the streaming rights to the Big Bang Theory, that is going on HBO Max. If CBS cannot even have its old flagship show on its service, how is it supposed to be competitive?

I predict that Viacom/CBS will be bought by Amazon or Apple in the future. Right now everyone is coming out with their own streaming service. Eventually a bunch of them will be bought and merged together.

I could see that. CBS/Viacom is the weakest of the major entertainment companies, Univeral and Warner Brothers are owned by giant corporations and Disney is a giant corporation in of itself.

Because Viacom/CBS is the weakest of the major companies, it seems the most likely to be bought out by a bigger player, like Apple , Amazon, etc.

 

[Masiral]

HBOMax is also going to cost $15 a month, making it the most expensive of the streaming services. It has to have a lot to justify that price point. The weakest streaming service, I'd say, is AppleTV+. Four new shows and that's it.

 

[The Overlord]

HBOMax is also going to cost $15 a month, making it the most expensive of the streaming services. It has to have a lot to justify that price point. The weakest streaming service, I'd say, is AppleTV+. Four new shows and that's it.

I do not consider Apple a major entertainment company in the way I would CBS or WB. What content does Apple have? A lot of capital, but no valuable IP.

You are right about HBOMax's price point, but they are still trying to put everything and the kitchen sink at HBOMax. Why isn't there Viacom or Showtime content on CBS All Access? Even though Disney is spreading their content across Disney+ and Hulu, it still seems like Disney+ or Hulu would have a better library then CBS All Access. CBS All Access has Star Trek and little else in terms of attractive content. One big franchise does not make a streaming service.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think the question should be, Will our love for Star Trek (and other franchises, like Marvel) survive the shitstorm of content these streaming wars are creating? Five Trek series, running all year around is utterly bonkers.

 

[Qonundrum]

Initially, "Picard" might give it a boost. How long people stay... Most people, I'd hope, look at what service offers the widest and/or most stable selection if they're going to be leasing a service forever.

Right now, Disney and Hulu are probably going to win this out as much as Taco Bell had in the movie "Demolition Man", something highly recommended because Wesley Snipes pretty much steals the show with his incredibly engaging take on Simon Phoenix. The whole cast put in a robust effort and the humor is top notch. There's only one real plot gaffe but let that slide and the movie is highly enjoyable. Given how much of the movie works, it's too easy to overlook and not let the plot detail ruin the experience.

And now, I'm going to go watch "Blade"... after another re-view of "Demolition Man".

 

[Qonundrum]

HBOMax is also going to cost $15 a month, making it the most expensive of the streaming services. It has to have a lot to justify that price point. The weakest streaming service, I'd say, is AppleTV+. Four new shows and that's it.

Ouch!

Then again, for new content Hulu is $50/mo. Their library catalogue, which new content isn't going to be a part of, is $6/mo...

 

[Lord Garth]

I think the question should be, Will our love for Star Trek (and other franchises, like Marvel) survive the shitstorm of content these streaming wars are creating? Five Trek series, running all year around is utterly bonkers.

Yes. Since I don't like all the series equally. I'll watch the ones I'm less interested in "when I get around to it".

 

[The Overlord]

I think a problem is CBS wants to be a player in the streaming wars, while Viacom wants to be a third-party provider, selling their wares to other streaming platforms. At a certain point, CBS/Viacom will have to pick an approach and go with it, either be a player and put all your stuff on CBS All Access or be a third-party provider and sell your wares to other services, trying to do both is counterproductive.

 

[fireproof78]

I think CBS will be just fine.

My larger question is why in the wide world of sports people should care?

 

[The Overlord]

I think CBS will be just fine.

My larger question is why in the wide world of sports people should care?

I think people care because having a streaming service that is worth its price of admission, that also hosts Star Trek, is better value then having one that is new Star Trek and a ton of dead weight. I wonder if there is more value in CBS having Star Trek shows stream elsewhere and shutting down CBS All Access if they are unwilling to do the real work of making it a top-rated streaming service.

 

[valkyrie013]

I was hoping that it would just be Netflix, and some other smaller sites when this poped up, but sigh.. not to pass.
They will soon relize that people arn't made of money and that they will only sign on to 2 maybe 3 streaming services. and that we can't buy All the streams. so the big ones are going to make it, Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ ( I put Disney up there because they have a Buttload of content) The others will be a niche market, as in, people will ocasionally pay the $5-10 for 1 month to catch up on a series like Titans, then cancel it for the rest of the year.
I Currently only have 1 streaming service, Amazon Prime. I let go Netflix awhile back when I relized I wasn't watching it much, same with Hulu.
Now if CBS offered a "Single Show" package where say we could pay a flat fee, say $10, that would give us the ability to watch a whole season of say Discovery.. but no access to the rest of CBS stuff. Or a "Star Trek" package of $30 a year to watch all the shows. I personaly don't have anything else to watch on CBS other than Trek..
Eventually things will shrink back down to a few streams services once the outliers find out that they arn't making any money.

 

[BillJ]

I think people care because having a streaming service that is worth its price of admission, that also hosts Star Trek, is better value then having one that is new Star Trek and a ton of dead weight. I wonder if there is more value in CBS having Star Trek shows stream elsewhere and shutting down CBS All Access if they are unwilling to do the real work of making it a top-rated streaming service.

I've got four or five different streaming services, and usually only watch one or two things off each of them. So I'm not sure that limited content is going to hurt All-Access that much. Netflix has a ton of content and a lot of absolute shit (and it cost $17/month), same as Amazon and Hulu.

 

[Masiral]

Ouch!

Then again, for new content Hulu is $50/mo. Their library catalogue, which new content isn't going to be a part of, is $6/mo...

I've got the $6/month Hulu, and it has plenty of new content. ABC, FOX, and NBC all put new episodes on Hulu the day after airing, as do several cable channels. Plus all the Hulu Originals.

 

[fireproof78]

I think people care because having a streaming service that is worth its price of admission, that also hosts Star Trek, is better value then having one that is new Star Trek and a ton of dead weight. I wonder if there is more value in CBS having Star Trek shows stream elsewhere and shutting down CBS All Access if they are unwilling to do the real work of making it a top-rated streaming service.

Perhaps. I imagine the market will sort out possible packages, or single show deals.

Personally, I just subscribe as needed.