CBS made good on its promise to offer customers a commercial-free option for its over-the-top service CBS All-Access, rolling out the offering for $9.99 per month on Wednesday.
CBS joins Hulu, which launched its commercial-free option last September and makes good on a promise chairman and CEO Les Moonves made earlier this year to offer an ad-free version of All Access. At $9.99 per month the CBS offering is lower priced than Hulu's $11.99 monthly fee for its ad-free version. The basic CBS All Access service, replete with commercials, still costs $5.99 per month.
“The foundation of CBS All Access is not only about giving CBS fans access to more of the content they want, but also giving them more choice in how they watch their favorite CBS programming,” said CBS Interactive president and chief operating officer Marc DeBevoise in a statement. “The addition of a commercial-free plan gives our subscribers even more ways to customize their CBS viewing experience – from which devices to whether they watch in or out of the home, and now with commercials or without.”
With the commercial-free plan, subscribers will be able to watch CBS All Access’s on-demand library of more than 7,500 episodes, including full current seasons of primetime hits like Big Brother, Blue Bloods, Madam Secretary and The Odd Couple among many others, as well as late night, daytime and news programming, all without commercials. CBS All Access’s upcoming original series, including the next chapter of the legendary Star Trek TV franchise, Star Trek: Discovery, a spinoff of The Good Wife and a new digital edition of Big Brother will also be available commercial-free under the $9.99/month plan.
Subscribers to the $5.99/month plan will continue to experience reduced commercials when watching on-demand content and be able to watch CBS Classics without commercials. Current subscribers will have the option to move to the commercial-free plan by logging on to their account through CBS.com.
But commercial-free doesnb’t necessarily mean ad-free for all content. CBS said subscribers to the $9.99 plan will still have to watch commercials in live streaming content nof local CBS TV stations and select on-deman shows will still include promotional interruptions.
CBS All Access is available online at CBS.com, on mobile devices and tablets via the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, and on Roku Players, Apple TV, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Chromecast, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, with more connected device platforms coming soon.
