Let’s say that your premium cable-drama tastes range more toward Homeland or Masters of Sex than they do Game of Thrones or Girls. Good news, then! If you’re getting tired of paying for access to the network on top of your monthly TV bill, that could change next year according to Wall Street Journal. On today’s earnings call, CBS’ chief executive officer Leslie Moonves said that standalone access to Showtime’s programming was coming in 2015 “fairly definitively.”
CBS Corp. said Wednesday its pay channel Showtime will follow the lead of rival HBO and offer its programming through a streaming service available to people who don’t have pay television subscriptions. Speaking to analysts on the company’s third quarter earnings call, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said “fairly definitively” Showtime will have such an “over-the-top” Web offering in 2015. CBS has already launched such a service for its broadcast network and on Thursday it will debut a streaming news service called CBSN. Programmers such as CBS and Time Warner Inc. ’s HBO are aggressively looking for new ways to reach viewers that may be eschewing traditional cable and satellite television. CBS also said it had reached an agreement to have its content streamed on a new over-the-top video service being launched by Sony Corp.
