CBS delays streaming ‘Star Trek’ debut until May 2017

CBS said its new Star Trek series would debut in January, but since it’s September and we still haven’t even heard about the cast, that date seemed to be in doubt. Today CBS confirmed a delay, essentially swapping debut windows between Star Trek: Discovery and its upcoming spinoff of The Good Wife , which will both be available exclusively in the US on the streaming CBS All Access service (outside the US and Canada, it will be on Netflix ). Star Trek: Discovery will launch in May 2017, while the new The Good Wife show will launch with a CBS TV broadcast in January, before jumping to All Access streaming. There’s also a new streaming edition of Big Brother called Over the Top that will launch on September 28th. Executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Fuller said in a statement that “We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality. Before heading into production, we evaluated these realities with our partners at CBS and they agreed: Star Trek deserves the very best, and these extra few months will help us achieve a vision we can all be proud of.” If it aims to convince more skeptical viewers to sign up — and maybe grab that $4 commercial-free option — a delay to make sure everything is working could be a good idea. Source: CBS

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CBS delays streaming ‘Star Trek’ debut until May 2017

CBS and Showtime have two million internet-only subscribers

While CBS is busy licensing content to Netflix for display outside of the US and Canada , here its own streaming services are off to a good start. On today’s earnings call, execs said CBS All Access and the streaming version of Showtime have combined to reach more than two million subscribers, with the number “about evenly split” between the two. $CBS Moonves: “CBS All Access and Showtime OTT streaming services have surpassed two million subscribers” — CBS IR (@CBSInvestors) July 28, 2016 This is all well ahead of the upcoming All Access-exclusive Star Trek series, and in response to questions, the company stated that its service is helping to reach customers who get their TV only over the internet. The demographic is apparently “younger, skews slightly female…and consumes double the amount of content” as traditional viewers. The CBS digital news channel wasn’t included in those numbers, but still had “record” views in June. CEO Les Moonves claimed Star Trek: Discovery will be profitable “even before it launches, ” which makes it less likely we’ll see any changes made to the current strategy. Source: CBS Q2 2016 Earnings

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CBS and Showtime have two million internet-only subscribers