CBS Corporation CBS will launch a Showtime streaming service through Hulu in early July, making it the first time a premium channel is available on Hulu.
Hulu’s subscribers can add Showtime to their subscriptions before the premiere of new seasons of Ray Donovan and Masters Of Sex on Jul 12. Both new and current Hulu subscribers can sign up for Showtime on Hulu.com.
Subscribers will be able to access the channel at www.hulu.com as well as through the Hulu app. They can stream the channel on all iOS and Android devices, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Wii and Wii U, Roku players, Amazon Fire TV & Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, and all the latest Vizio, LG and Samsung televisions along with Sony, Samsung and LG Blu-ray players.
Hulu subscribers will have to shell out an extra $8.99 for Showtime to add it to their subscriptions. Currently, subscribers pay $7.99 for Hulu service. All of Showtime’s old as well as new series, documentaries, sports programming along with huge library of movies will be available to Hulu subscribers across U.S, that too devoid of advertisements.
A few days back, CBS Corp had announced that Showtime will be available on all Apple devices i.e., iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV for $10.99 monthly across U.S.
The TV landscape is changing radically. For some time now, streaming services like Netflix, Inc. NFLX, Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video AMZN and YouTube have made internet TV quite popular. This, along with rising cable bills have resulted in large number of cord cutters.
Estimated to be 10 million in number, these cord cutters have presented a lucrative opportunity to the media companies. To benefit from the situation, several companies have been launching over the top services for their premium channels. CBS Corp. already provides a streaming service, CBS All Access, for a monthly subscription of $5.99.
Moreover, Time Warner Inc. TWX has launched independent streaming service of HBO, which gives online viewers access to all of HBO’s content for a monthly charge of $14.99.
For Hulu, this is a good chance to catch up with rival Netflix. Hulu’s current subscriber base of nine million is much lower than Netflix’s 62 million subscribers.
At present, CBS Corp carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Be the first to comment