NEW YORK—CBS Sports is embracing streaming for its biggest sporting event of the year, announcing that its coverage of Super LV will be available across ViacomCBS digital platforms, including a live stream of the big game itself on CBS All Access.

Starting at 2 p.m. on Feb. 7, CBS Sports will begin its streaming coverage on CBSSports.com (available to unauthenticated users) and on the CBS Sports app for OTT devices and services, smart TVs and mobile devices.

CBS’ broadcast coverage of Super Bowl LV will be available as a live stream to subscribers of CBS All Access, which has been providing live streaming coverage of NFL on CBS games all season.

“We’re excited to broaden the availability of our Super Bowl LV stream this year, as we look forward to building on the incredibly strong momentum NFL football is driving on CBS All Access as a cornerstone of the extensive live sports offerings available on the service,” said Jeff Gerttula, executive vice president and general manager, CBS Sports Digital.

In addition to CBS digital properties, Super Bowl LV will be streamed for free on NFL digital properties across devices, on mobile via the participating teams’ mobile properties, Yahoo Sports and other Verizon Media mobile properties. ESPN Deportes and ESPN digital platforms will provide Spanish-language streams of the game.

There is no word on whether ViacomCBS will attempt an alternate broadcast of the Super Bowl, after experimenting with one of Nickelodeon for the playoff game between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints that was designed specifically for younger viewers and earned rave reviews.

The Super Bowl has been available via streaming in recent years. Last year’s Super Bowl LIV drew 3.4 million viewers via streaming, per Fox.

Super Bowl LV will take place on Feb. 7 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

NEW YORK—Paramount+, the rebranded version of the CBS All Access streaming service from ViacomCBS, will officially launch on March 4 in the U.S., Canada and Latin America, ViacomCBS announced.

Paramount+ will add additional legacy and original content to what was already included on the CBS All Access service. This will include content from Showtime, CBS Television Studios, Paramount Television Studios, BET, Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount blockbuster and classic movies.

In addition to the markets included in the March 4 launch, ViacomCBS reports that Paramount+ will become available to other international markets, including the Nordics on March 25 and Australia in mid-2021.

The streaming market has grown rapidly over the last year with the launch of new services like Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV+ and Peacock, as well as the pandemic increasing people’s viewing habits and reliance on streaming services. Paramount+ hopes to be able to garner interest in the market with its content library.

While not mentioned in the press release, previous reports suggested that Paramount+ would have the same cost as CBS All Access (starting at $5.99/month), including options for ad supported and ad free versions. 

Also omitted in the announcement was what platforms Paramount+ will be available on at launch, particularly Roku and Amazon Prime Fire. CBS All Access was available through both platforms.

ViacomCBS also announced in its press release a streamed investor event on Feb. 24 to go over fourth quarter and full 2020 financial results, as well as present the company’s streaming strategy. For more information, visit ViacomCBS’ website. 

PHILADELPHIA—Xfinity X1 customers now have easy access to “Star Trek: Picard,” “The Good Fight” and other CBS All Access content, as Comcast has announced that it is making the CBS All Access streaming service available on Xfinity X1. Comcast made the CBS All Access app available on Xfinity Flex earlier this year.

According to Comcast, Xfinity is the first pay-TV provider to offer CBS’ streaming platform directly to customers.

Through X1, customers now have access to CBS All Access content that includes 20,000 episodes and movies from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and more, as well as original series like “Star Trek: Discovery,” “Star Trek: Picard,” “The Good Fight,” the upcoming Stephen King adaptation “The Stand” and more. CBS All Access also provides live streaming of CBS Sports programming and news and entertainment coverage.

X1 customers will be able to access CBS All Access over the internet, and can pull it up using voice command on their Xfinity Voice Remote.

All of the content and features available through CBS All Access will remain when the streaming service officially rebrands as Paramount+ early in 2021, Comcast reports.

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Apple TV+ subscribers will soon have the option to add a discounted bundle of CBS All Access and Showtime content, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Apple has plans to offer its first discounted bundle on its TV+ service featuring as soon as next week. Currently, Apple TV+ subscribers can only get different content providers on an a la carte basis.

Per Bloomberg, starting Monday, Aug. 17, Apple TV+ will provide both CBS All Access and Showtime channels in Apple TV’s app for $9.99/month combined.

This is part of a broader plan from Apple to make bundle services available across all of its major offerings later this year called “Apple One.”

For more information, read Bloomberg’s full story. 

PALISADES, N.Y.—The Video Call Center is bringing its trademark video remote by smartphone technology to a different kind of broadcast, as Late Night Cartoons Inc. will be utilizing the VCC platform for its CBS All Access animated series “Tooning Out the News.”

“Tooning Out the News” is a new animated variety news series that features cartoon news anchors that parody top news stories, but also interview real-word guests. To apply its technology to this show, VCC developed a custom process that allows for the animated hosts’ to have natural conversations with guests, says the official announcement.

The new VCC service is called Caller Cloud-Solo. It enables its video call system to integrate with video conference solutions like Zoom, which the show producers are using as their virtual control room.

In addition, VCC is providing other technology and services to support the production, including VCC Caller Queue, which enables remote guests to join the production by clicking a hyperlink provided over text or email; VCC’s expert call producers; coordination with show producers; low-latency return feed to the remote guest; and broadcast-quality ISO feeds to provide the audio and video feeds needed to edit the show.

“Tooning Out the News” is now streaming on CBS All Access; it features new segments Tuesday through Friday that culminate into a full episode.

For more information, visit www.thevcc.tv.  

LONDON—The popularity of Disney+ has only increased during the coronavirus pandemic, as shelter-at-home orders have seen viewers increase their TV consumption habits. But not everyone is seeing the same kind of surge that Disney+ has had, according to findings from MIDiA Research.

In the first quarter of 2020, binge watching and live TV consumption both increased by 2% (51% and 50%, respectively) from their Q4 2019 numbers. In addition, the number of multiple SVOD service subscribers increased by 3%, MIDiA says.

Disney+ saw its weekly engagement in Q1 2020 nearly double from Q4 2019 to 20%. That puts it in fourth place behind the three major SVOD services, Netflix (59%), Amazon Prime (46%) and Hulu (30%). Disney+ does lead the pack, however, as the fastest gainer among the top seven paid streaming services.

Growth is not equal though among the streaming services, as evidenced by MIDiA’s numbers for Apple TV+ and CBS All Access. CBS All Access’ weekly usage comes in at 5%, while Apple TV+ comes in at 3%, the lowest among the top seven services. 

While newer streaming services like Peacock and HBO Max were ready at the time of the report, MIDiA makes a point that these services have an inherent advantage over Apple TV+ because of their established content. CBS All Access, meanwhile, is planning to adjust its platform to add more of its ViacomCBS content.

For more information, visit www.midiaresearch.com.  

NEW YORK—ViacomCBS is expected to give a boost to the CBS All Access streaming service, with reports expecting the details of that plan to be announced by the company’s Feb. 20 earnings call.

CBS All Access, which was the first streaming service offered by a broadcast network, is expected to add legacy Viacom content, including Paramount and Showtime; some content is expected to go on a premium tier. CBS All Access is currently the home of content like “The Good Fight,” “Star Trek: Discovery” and its latest series, “Star Trek: Picard.”

There is currently no information on how much the new service may cost.

For more information, read a full write-up on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

NEW YORK & PHILADELPHIA—ViacomCBS owned stations and networks won’t be going away for Comcast customers anytime soon, as the two sides have come to terms on a renewed content carriage agreement.

The deal will continue retransmission consent of 23 CBS-owned TV stations in 15 markets across the U.S., including CBS-owned CW affiliates. It will also continue the distribution of entertainment and sports channels like Showtime, Smithsonian Channel, Pop TV and CBS Sports Network to Xfinity customers.

Something new to the deal is the addition of the CBS All Access digital subscription on-demand and livestreaming service to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex platforms later in 2020. ViacomCBS says this is the first time the CBS All Access app will be available on an MVPD-based set-top box.

In addition, the agreement covers TV Everywhere availability of programming from CBS Television Network and CBS Sports Network to Xfinity customers on CBS.com, the CBS app and Xfinity Stream. Showtime Anytime will also continue to provide Xfinity Showtime subscribers with unlimited access to its content online and on mobile devices.

The markets impacted by the deal are: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore for CBS-owned stations; and Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Detroit, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore for CW affiliates.

Also, two MyNetwork affiliates will be available in Boston and Miami, and the CBS-owned independent station will be available in New York.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NEW YORK—Day-after conversations around the water cooler about sporting events inevitably come around to “did you see that play” or “call”—and when it comes to the Super Bowl, “commercial.”

However, no one ever thinks to ask “when did you see that” –no one except for real-time streaming specialist Phenix. The company, which has created its own spin on WebRTC to power live video streaming at scale with about 500 milliseconds of latency, is keenly aware of the when, especially when it comes to Super Bowl LIII.

“On average, there was a streaming delay ranging from 30 to 47 seconds depending on the platform,” says Jed Corenthal, CMO of Phenix.

To arrive at that finding, Phenix compared the time plays actually occurred on the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to when the same play began on eight platforms used to stream the game, including the CBS Sports App, NFL.com, Xfinity, CBSSports.com, YouTube TV, the NFL App, CBS All Access and the Yahoo Sports App.

The company released its findings Feb. 5 in the form of two online graphs, one laying out the averages for measured lag behind real-time for Super Bowl 2019 and the other presenting the measured audience drift –or ranges of lag for viewers on the same platform—for the game.

More than 800 data points were collected for the eight streams on multiple devices, such as laptop computers, smartphones and tablets. Each was compared by measuring the delay behind the over-the-air, cable or satellite TV signal.

To establish the start times for each sampled play, a Phenix researcher in the stadium reported on a cellphone when measured plays actually began, explains Corenthal, adding that using the cellphone created about 40 to 50 milliseconds of latency.

Some 20 people around the country using different digital devices and streaming platforms then recorded when the same play began on the streaming devices. Measurements were taken throughout the game.

Phenix found that the CBS Sports App performed best among the streaming platforms with an average of 28.2 seconds of latency compared to the on-field game. On the other end of the continuum was the Yahoo Sports App with an average of 46.7 seconds of latency.

The study also looked at audience drift, or the range of lag viewers on the same platform experienced. YouTube TV recorded the greatest drift with 107.8 seconds, while the NFL App with 69.3 seconds recorded the least drift.

The culprit is HLS, or HTTP Live Streaming, which “wasn’t designed for real time,” says Corenthal.

“They [HLS-based platforms] may be able to do things to it that alter the latency of their particular stream, but when you add up the encoding, the content delivery and all of the points along the way, what happens in HLS is you are kind of relegated to a certain amount of latency because that is the way the technology is built,” he says.

Latency may or may not be a problem for viewers, but any Super Bowl fan who was watching the game on traditional TV and also turning to a smartphone or tablet for the game likely saw the effects of streaming latency firsthand.

“Look, for some people that’s OK. It’s not a big deal. But what we are seeing is the general fan is getting tired of that; tired of streams that are behind; streams that are buffering,” says Corenthal.

“The good news is most of the streams had pretty good quality, and quality and scale have been the first two pegs of the triangle that have been somewhat solved. It’s when latency is added –all three pegs of quality, scale and latency—that’s where these platforms come up a bit short in our estimation.”

More information is available on the Phenix website.

CBS’s coverage of Super Bowl LIII drew 100.7 million viewers across all platforms, down 2.6 percent from 103.4 million viewers last year.

According to Fast Total Audience Estimates from Nielsen, the New England Patriots’ low-scoring victory over the Los Angeles Rams was watched in all or part by 149 million people age 2 and up.

Streaming the Super Bowl set records. The average minute audience was 2.6 million viewers, up 31 percent from last year. The game was seen on 7.5 million unique devices, up 20% from last year, and viewers consumed more than 560 million total minutes of live game coverage, up 19 percent from last year.

CBS said Super Sunday delivered the biggest day even for new subscriptions to CBS All Access. Sign ups were up 84 percent, unique viewers rose 46 percent and there was a 76 percent increase in time spent on CBS All Access.

CBS said that for its owned stations in Los Angeles and Boston, this year’s game was the highest rated Super Bowl ever.

Following the game, CBS drew 22.22 million viewers for The World’s Best, best ever for CBS. The Late Show drew 5.52 million viewers, its third highest total ever.

The lower viewership was matched by estimates that CBS drew fewer ad dollars for the Super Bowl.

Kantar Media’s preliminary estimate for in-game ad revenue for Super Bowl LIII is $382 million, down 6 percent from $408 million in last year’s game The record was set in 2017, when the Super Bowl went into overtime and Fox rang up revenues of $419 million, according to Kantar.

Data and analytics company iSpot.TV estimates that advertisers spent $391 million on in-game spots on CBS during the Super Bowl.

LOS ANGELES—The story behind the tech strategy at the heart of CBS All Access is really a tale of playing to one’s strengths and circumventing one’s limitations to find success in the mobile and over-the-top world.

That was the main takeaway from an update on the four-year-old service delivered by Bob Seidel, CBS vice president of engineering and advanced technology at the SMPTE 2018 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition.

OVERCOMING RESTRICTIONS

The network’s strengths are well-known: a powerful programming lineup, a deep content library of shows with some 10,000 episodes, a well-respected news organization, world-class sports coverage and a lineup of daytime programming and specials that is watched by millions. Add to that several popular new series, such as “Star Trek Discovery,” that are only available to CBS All Access subscribers.

However, delivering CBS content to mobile and over-the-top devices came with a set of restrictions that limited how the network could go about launching its service, said Seidel.

“The main problem and challenges broadcasters are faced with today delivering to mobile and over-the-top devices is that a license is granted by the network to affiliate stations to broadcast content to their DMA,” he said. “Therefore, we had to develop technology that would ‘geo-fence’ the signal to just the DMA they were authorized to distribute in.”

Another significant limitation was the record of failure broadcasters worldwide have experienced “independent of the technology or the modulation selected” when it comes to broadcasting a signal from their antennas to mobile devices, said Seidel.

The failures include TV Globo in Brazil with a COFDM service, Qualcomm MediaFlo and Dyle in the United States –the former using DVB-H and the latter using ATSC M/H—and others in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Hungary, he said.

“These unsuccessful attempts led CBS to develop All Access,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we could deliver our linear broadcast content as well as library content to hundreds of millions of existing devices,” said Seidel, adding that the network wanted to do this on all wireless networks, including 3G, 4G, LTE, eventually 5G, and via 400,000 U.S. wireless hotspots.

[Read: CBS All Access Going Global]

There were other limitations as well, such as the “very high” capital costs associated with mobile TV for broadcasters and the aversion of cellular carriers to including mobile TV receivers in their handsets, he explained.

FOLLOWING THE VIEWER

Against this backdrop, CBS developed its mobile and OTT service with the goals of monetizing its content, enabling third-party audience measurement via Nielsen on all screens without leakage and providing a revenue share for its affiliates that contributed local news to the service geo-fenced by DMA.

CBS selected Syncbak as its All Access geo-fencing technology. Once Syncbak verifies the market in which a device is located it connects users to the CBS station in that market. If they should happen to be traveling, the connection will shift to the market All Access viewers have entered; however, an element of hysteresis is built in to prevent viewers driving between two cities from being switched away from a sporting event, he said.

CBS All Access begins in the master control of its affiliates and O&Os where Nielsen audio watermarking is added, which ultimately will allow the network and station to know exactly how many viewers are watching the service, said Seidel.

Next, a feed of the signal leaving master control is bridged off to the Syncbak transcoder, which converts MPEG-2 video to MPEG-4, AC-3 audio to AAC and the audio watermark to an ID3 tag –the packaging format used by iTunes to indicate song title, author and other information, he explained.

Rather than iTunes-related info, CBS inserts source identification, date, time and distributor codes. “We had to develop a method to deliver a sidecar data signal that would give us access to the Nielsen data,” he said.

Once past the station’s firewall, the transcoded stream is sent on to the Syncbak data center where geo-location is done, to match the correct station feed to the DMA where the user device is located. The data center can locate a phone or other device using GPS data, triangulation of cell towers or Wi-Fi hotspots, he added.

The authorized signal is then handed off to one of several content delivery networks for delivery to CBS All Access customers. The network uses load balancing software to make sure the best performing CDN is selected and to give subscribers the best possible viewing experience, said Seidel.

When the signal reaches the device, the CBS All Access application uses the Nielsen software development kit to access the ID3 tag and return the data to the ratings agency for accurate audience measurement.

Many service stacks defining video resolutions, MPEG-4 data rates and AAC data rates are available to match device type and size. For the hearing impaired, all closed captioning data is transcoded and made available on the service, he added.

AT THE LOCAL LEVEL

Equipping local stations for CBS All Access has been simple and straightforward. All that is required is a 1RU Syncbak device that takes in a station’s ASI signal and delivers back to the Syncbak data center IP packets. A second such unit is installed for redundancy, and two different delivery paths out of the station are in place to bypass any problem, such as a firewall issue or rebuffering, he said.

CBS, which monitors all 200 stations’ All Access service from New York City and Los Angeles, provides each station with its own signal from the CDN for monitoring, he added.

Beyond mobile devices, CBS All Access supports a wide range of OTT devices, such as Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox 360 and PlayStation, said Seidel.

In the four years since its launch, CBS All Access has developed into a service that meets all of the network’s business needs. “It’s preserving the existing business requirements that we have for our local affiliates,” said Seidel. “It is providing a real-time live linear viewing capability across the board. It’s measured by Nielsen, so we are getting accreditation.”

CBS All Access is also helping the network, its owned stations and affiliates lower the average age of its viewers by reaching a younger audience on the devices they like to use, he added.

Following the presentation, one conference attendee asked Seidel whether CBS All Access might someday make use of some of the capabilities of ATSC 3.0. However, Seidel avoided mentioning the Next-Gen TV standard in his reply.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA.—CBS All Access has 2.5 million subscribers and its average viewer age is 43, the streaming network’s executives shared at the 2018 TCA summer press tour. It is shooting for 4 million subscribers in 2019, and 8 million in 2022.

Marc Debevoise, president and COO of CBS Interactive, divulged the figures. He welcomed Julie McNamara, executive VP of original content, to the stage. She spoke of several premieres.

One Dollar, a mystery that follows a dollar bill as it changes hands around town, comes out Aug. 30. Set in a small rust-belt town in post-recession America, the dollar bill connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder.

Tell Me a Story, fairy tales with a dark psychological twist, debuts Oct. 31. Kevin Williamson is executive producer. The show takes place, and is shot, in New York. “It’s a great place to shoot,” said Williamson. “It just looks amazing on camera.”

[Read: CBSN To Stream Local Affiliates' Newscasts]

Star Trek: Discovery has a new season coming in early 2019, and Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone premieres after that.

CBS All Access announced a new Star Trek series the day before, bringing back Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. CBS did not say when that one will start.

The streaming service costs $5.99 per month with commercials and $9.99 without. It turns four in October.

Other CBS All Access original series include The Good Fight, No Activity and Strange Angel.

NEW YORK--CBS Corporation and the National Football League have announced an extended agreement to stream all NFL ON CBS games on “CBS All Access” through the 2022 season. CBS will also now expand its NFL game streaming access for “CBS All Access” subscribers and TV Everywhere to include mobile devices beginning this season, adding to its distribution across other connected device platforms.

The entire 2018 NFL ON CBS schedule, highlighted by Super Bowl LIII, will be streamed live on all “CBS All Access” platforms, including on mobile devices via the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, online at CBS.com, and on connected devices including Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs and Amazon Channels. “CBS All Access” subscribers will receive the NFL ON CBS games that are broadcast in their local market.

[Read: CBS All Access Scores NFL Games]

In addition to extending “CBS All Access” streaming rights to mobile devices for the first time, NFL ON CBS authenticated streaming rights will extend to mobile for its cable, satellite, telco and vMVPD partners beginning this season.

CBS began streaming NFL ON CBS games to “CBS All Access” subscribers on connected TVs, tablets and computers during the 2016 season. 

NEW YORK & SEATTLE—Amazon Prime members can now add CBS shows to their checkout cart, as Amazon is now providing CBS’s digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, CBS All Access. The service will be available to Amazon’s Prime membership through Amazon Channels.

Prime members can sign up for CBS All Access for an additional $9.99 a month. As a result they will have access to more than 10,000 commercial-free episodes of on-demand CBS shows, including current primetime, late night and daytime programming; full building seasons of all current CBS primetime series; all past seasons of 14 CBS series, including “The Good Wife,” “NCIS” and “Hawaii-Five O”; a live stream of their local CBS station, including NFL programming, The Grammys and Academy of Country Music Awards; access to CBS All Access original series; and the ability to watch CBS All Access across devices where the Prime Video app is available.

CBS All Access’ limited commercial plan will also be available for $5.99 a month.

NEW YORK—CBS All Access reached a new frontier with the number of sign ups it received in a single day on Sunday with the premiere of “Star Trek: Discovery.” The new series based on the popular sci-fi franchise helped topped the OTT service’s previous sign up record for the 2017 Grammy Awards.

TVT’s sister publication B&C has the full story.

NEW YORK—CBS content will be available to viewers around the world starting in 2018. CBS Corporation has officially announced its plans to expand the availability of its streaming service CBS All Access globally through a partnership with its CBS Interactive and CBS Studios International divisions.

CBS All Access’ first trip abroad will be in Canada, with the initial launch set to take place in the first half of 2018. More markets on multiple continents will follow, according to a statement from Leslie Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation.

CBS All Access originally launched in 2014 and offers more than 9,000 episodes of CBS content on demand, including past shows and upcoming original series. The U.S. subscription is available for $5.99/month, but no prices for non-U.S. markets have been set as of yet.

NEW YORK—Do a touchdown dance CBS All Access subscribers, because starting Dec. 4, you will be able to stream live “NFL on CBS” games through the streaming service. CBS Corporation and the NFL have agreed to a multiyear deal for this new service that will include all coverage of regular, preseason and postseason games.

All “NFL on CBS” games will now be available for live streaming on CBS All Access, including “Thursday Night Football” on CBS, pregame and halftime coverage, and local market games. The NFL coverage will be available on all tablets and connected device platforms that carry the CBA All Access app, as well as online on cbs.com.

Another part of the deal will kick off next season, allowing CBS All Access and eligible pay TV subscribers to stream “NFL on CBS” content on NFL digital properties, like the NFL mobile app. Users can also sample content from NFL Game Pass, a digital video subscription service that provides on-demand games and programming.

“This deal is a great addition to our ongoing strategy of expanding availability of NFL games to fans on as many platforms as possible,” said Hans Schroeder, senior vice president or media revenue, strategy and development for the NFL. “By including all ‘NFL on CBS’ games on CBS All Access, we have the opportunity to reach more NFL fans in more places than ever."