CBS ‘Committed’ to Launching Streaming Services in 200 Countries, Says Acting CEO

There are only so many "seats" in "this rocket ship" of competitive streaming "taking off in our space,” said CBS Chief Digital Officer Jim Lanzone on a Q1 call Thursday. “There aren't that many people who spend $8 billion plus per year on content and do it as well as we do,” he said. “If we play this right, there's definitely a seat for us in that ship.” The CBS All Access audience averages about 20 years younger than that of CBS linear TV and is split roughly 50-50 between men and women, said Lanzone. Two-thirds choose the “limited commercial option,” the rest go for commercial-free, he said. Churn is “in line with industry norms and we've been happy to see many lapsed users coming back to All Access upon the seasonal return of their favorite content,” he said. “We think of these users as pausing their membership rather than canceling it in the traditional sense, and the data suggests that our investment in content across CBS will be our most effective tool for eliminating or reducing the pause cycle for these users, as well as deepening their engagement.” The company is on pace to reach 25 million streaming subscribers in 2022, said President-acting CEO Joe Ianniello. That "doesn't include subs from our international services where we continue to increase our footprint," he said. Having launched streaming in Canada and Australia, “next up” is expanding services into Latin America and Western Europe, he said. “We're taking our time with international,” Ianniello said. “We're being methodical,” with focus on “making sure that the offering to the consumer is robust,” he said. Content will be “the constraining factor, but we're committed to rolling this out in 200 countries around the world,” he said. With nearly 7.5 billion people living outside the U.S., international is “a huge opportunity for further long-term growth,” said Ianniello, whose contract was just extended through Dec. 31 (see 1904290062).