CBS cut a deal with Verizon for carriage of its owned-and-operated stations on the telco’s mobile and wired TV systems. Terms give Verizon mobile rights for full episodes of several CBS series and news shows, including the long-running, highly rated “60 Minutes.” The carrier also secured video-on-demand rights for high- and standard-definition versions of “CSI,” NCIS,” “Survivor,” “Numb3ers,” and local news.
CBS owns 28 stations, including 14 of its own affiliates in top markets, nine CW affiliates and a handful of indies. Verizon has around 1.6 million subscribers for its FiOS fiber-optic TV service, rolled out now in 14 states. Subscriber numbers for telco’s mobile service, Vcast, are not available.
The Eye Network last week opted for carriage on MobiTV, the content provider for the cell-phone TV service offered by Sprint and AT&T. Financial terms for neither arrangement were disclosed. Meanwhile, it’s also bolstering its own online presence with the addition of more than 1,000 full episodes of TV series like “Starsky & Hutch” and “Dexter,” according to The Wall Street Journal. New deals for Hollywood studio fare are expected today, the newspaper of record said. CBS’s TV.com now has a fancy HD Flash player for countless episodes of “The Young and Restless,” the original “Star Trek,” “NCIS,” and “The Price is Right,” among others.
