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Moonves Bullish on CBS Outlook — Including a Huge Milestone Looming for Retrans Fees and Changes in Store for CBS All Access (Attention ‘Star Trek’ Fans)

Nov 4, 2015  •  Post A Comment

On the heels of the announcement that his network is bringing the “Star Trek” franchise back to TV, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves painted a rosy picture of the financial outlook for the company.

TVNewsCheck reports that Moonves accentuated the positive in the company’s just-announced third-quarter results.

While revenues for CBS Corp. were down — from $3.37 billion a year ago to $3.26 billion in Q3 2015 — “network advertising grew 8%, including 42% growth in late-night advertising, thanks in large part to ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ which kicked off late in the quarter,” TVNewsCheck notes.

Said Moonves, addressing investors and analysts during the company’s conference call: “Advertising is coming back in a big way at CBS.”

Moonves was especially enthusiastic about retrans/reverse comp and CBS All Access, TVNewsCheck notes.

“Moonves projected retrans/reverse comp will exceed $1 billion next year, ahead of schedule. And while declining to make projections on much else, he said CBS is on target to exceed the $2 billion in retrans/reverse comp originally forecast for 2020,” the story reports.

As for CBS All Access, which will be the home of the new “Star Trek” series, Moonves called the series the “family jewel,” and said the company is contemplating a commercial-free version of the OTT service to be priced at about $10 per month. The current CBS All Access, with commercials, goes for $5.99 a month.

Moonves also hinted that “Star Trek” isn’t the last word when it comes to original programming slated for CBS All Access. “We feel like original programming is the next way to distinguish ourselves” on the platform, he noted.

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2 Comments

  1. Big ST fan since the original series aired… I wouldn’t be paying CBS $5.99 a month, let alone $10. I’ll wait for inevitable OTA syndication airings.

  2. Agree with John. CBS is crazy if they think even the hard core fans are going to pay for Star Trek. CBS is still the channel for over 50; and a Star Trek reboot won’t fix that. One show isn’t enough to make people pay $10.00 a month. And no one has even seen an episode to determine if it as good as previous iterations, or just another weak reboot like Heroes.

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