CBS, in the middle of a carriage blackout with AT&T, signed a new multi-year distribution agreement with Altice USA.
The Altice deal includes retransmission consent for CBS’s own stations and new an extension of carriage of Showtime, CBS Sports Network, Pop TV and Smithsonian Channel.
The deal also enables Altice to offer the Showtime streaming service to broadband customers.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Altice USA is committed to delivering a wide array of high-quality content for our customers at competitive, fair rates, and this new agreement with CBS allows us to meet that objective,” said Yossi Benchetrit, head of programming for Altice USA. “We are pleased to extend our longstanding partnership with CBS, enabling the CBS network portfolio to remain available to our customers as part of Altice’s Optimum and Suddenlink TV lineups.”
CBS stations are blacked out to subscribers to AT&T’s DirecTV and U-Verse customers and the network is unavailable on the DirecTV Now streaming services.
For CBS, the Altice agreement shows that it is able to make deals with distributors.
“We are pleased to strike a fair marketplace deal with Altice for CBS, Showtime, CBS Sports Network, Pop TV and Smithsonian Channel well in advance of our expiration and without any disruption to consumers. We appreciate the value Altice places on delivering America’s #1 network to its customers,” said Ray Hopkins, president, Television Networks Distribution, CBS Corporation. “Altice is a great partner, and we look forward to continuing to bring our highly-rated programming and exclusive major sporting events to all of Altice’s customers.”
