CBS Will Spend $8 billion on Content in 2019
Following the strong performance of CBS’s streaming service CBS All Access in their quarterly earnings, CBS is gearing up to spend some serious cash on content and services in the coming year.
A piece from Variety last week highlights CBS’s plans to build on the successes of the first part of this year and invest strategically, in anticipation of market upheaval in the near-term. Quoting the piece: “CBS Corp. will spend more than $8 billion on content this year as it looks to bolster its pipeline of programs for in-house platforms and outside buyers. ...Joe Ianniello, CBS president and acting CEO, said the Eye is committed to investing more in content amid the swings of the pay-TV market and the arrival of new contenders with deep pockets such as Apple.”
That spend is expected to consist of a combination of original content, like Star Trek: Discovery, plus sports rights, and buying in rights from outside suppliers to run on CBS and Showtime.
Ianniello also said that CBS would look at selling properties to third parties on a case by case basis, like the new Star Trek animated series that they recently agreed to carry on Nickelodeon.
