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‘Potential Bombshell’: Will Showtime Offer Online Subscription Directly to Consumers?

Sep 5, 2014  •  Post A Comment

CBS Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello dropped what Forbes calls “a potential bombshell” on an audience Thursday at the Nomura Digital Media Conference: The company could offer pay-TV network Showtime directly to consumers.

“In other words, there’s nothing stopping CBS from offering an online standalone Showtime service that cord cutters could subscribe to without a cable or satellite subscription,” Forbes notes.

Ianiello stopped short of saying CBS is working on such an offer, however. Offering Showtime directly to consumers would be a “big deal,” the report notes, since current online offerings such as HBO Go require consumers to authenticate that they have a pay-TV subscription.

“If CBS does offer the network as an online subscription, it will be the first shot fired at the hegemony of cable,” the story reports. “If other networks started to follow suit, we could be moving into an a la carte world where you only pay for the networks you want to watch.”

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2 Comments

  1. Get ready for the game to change- finally.

  2. Hope so. I’ll definitely buy a Showtime online subscription and cancel my cable bill.

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