Written by: Roshan Dwivedi
Following a similar move which saw it becoming the first internet service provider to distribute HBO NOW to its broadband customers, New York-area cable TV company Cablevision announced this morning that it will offer its internet customers the ability to subscribe to CBS’s over-the-top TV services, including CBS All Access and Showtime without an accompanying pay TV subscription.
The deal was forged in the wake of the two companies’ updated, multi-year agreement, which also saw a renewal of Cablevision’s carriage of Showtime, the CBS Sports Network and the Smithsonian Channel on its cable TV service.
A number of traditional pay TV providers are attempting to figure out how to shift their businesses to support the growing streaming video trend, which sees a number of current customers “cutting the cord,” while other – often younger – customers never sign up for pay TV in the first place (the “cord-nevers”), in favor of using online services like Netflix.
Some companies, like Dish Network with Sling TV, Comcast with its upcoming service Stream, or Verizon (disclosure: AOL/TechCrunch parent company) with its mobile video on demand service Go90, are attempting to launch their own streaming platforms as a means of competing. Cablevision, on the other hand, is simply becoming a reseller of over-the-top video streaming services, including as of this March, HBO NOW. And in April, it became the first pay TV provider to distribute Hulu to its broadband customers.
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