[opendtv] Coming to the Internet: Shows From CBS That You Won’t See on CBS | Re/code

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 08:06:55 -0400

http://recode.net/2014/08/08/coming-to-the-internet-shows-from-cbs-that-you-wont-see-on-cbs/

Coming to the Internet: Shows From CBS That You Won’t See on CBS

CBS is working on shows that you won’t see on CBS. Instead, the plan is for you 
to see them on the Internet, via video services like Netflix or Amazon’s Prime 
Instant Video.

If that happens, it means CBS will have opened up a new revenue source: In 
addition to selling its reruns to Netflix and its competitors, it will also be 
selling them brand-new shows those services can stream exclusively.

CBS CEO Les Moonves, reading from a script during his company’s earnings call 
yesterday, announced that CBS’s TV studio “will be producing more and more 
shows for more and more outlets, including major streaming companies and other 
emerging distributors.”

Later on in the call, in response to an analyst question, he said that 
“shortly, you’re going to hear us being in business with some of the 
[subscription video-on-demand services] with original program[s].”

A CBS spokesman confirmed that Moonves was talking about selling new shows to 
the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.

This isn’t the first time that Moonves has floated the idea. In February 2012, 
he told analysts that CBS might produce a show for Netflix, which had just 
gotten into the originals business. But that show never materialized.

Netflix and other streaming services generally commission other studios to make 
new series, and buy exclusive rights to air them for a “window” of time. Media 
Rights Capital, for instance, owns “House of Cards” and has the right to sell 
the show to other places, including DVDs via Amazon.

Like other TV studios, CBS’s studio produces shows that run on other networks. 
But its primary role is to create shows that run on CBS and its sister 
networks, including giant hits like the “CSI” and “NCIS” franchises.

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