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Stan retains Showtime titles as CBS buys up TEN

Updated: Stan will remain the home of Showtime titles, despite any talk of CBS All Access coming.

Amongst the news that CBS will buy TEN there was the excitement that CBS All Access will launch in Australia.

In the US the streaming platform is the exclusive home to The Good Fight and the upcoming Star Trek: Discover. The Good Fight is already with SBS in Australia and Netflix has the run of show rights for Star Trek: Discovery. 

We can expect both to premiere with SBS and Netflix, respectively.

Whether they are added to CBS All Access at some point after each platform remains to be seen. Amazon’s Transparent, for instance, continues to debut with Stan in Australia. But since Amazon Prime Video has now landed down under, it also screens the show after Stan’s exclusivity period expires (trivia: Amazon once announced a show as debuting before realising Stan still had exclusivity).

The bigger question for Stan, apart from yet more streaming competitors, surrounds their deal with the CBS-owned Showtime.

Stan paid big bucks for an exclusive Showtime output deal in early 2016, upending a Foxtel deal. That has seen it nab Twin Peaks, Billions, White Famous, I’m Dying Up Here, Dice, amongst others, plus library titles.

Updated: Stan CEO Mike Sneesby said the relationship with CBS was strong and Stan would remain the home of Showtime in Australia.

“Our Showtime output deal is nowhere near the expiry date with years to run. It is certainly something that is not on the radar or near renegotiation period.

 “The CBS component of our Showtime output deal also remains unchanged including content where we have exclusive rights,” he said.

“CBS is a powerhouse that will be great for the Free to Air industry. Through their diversified portfolio of Showtime and other content investments Stan has really backed a winner.”

An earlier report suggesting the deal would expire next year was incorrect.  

7 Responses

  1. I am very much looking forward to all access launching here. It should lead to many new shows the Australian market hasn’t seen, as well as much shorter windows between US and Australian air dates. The Australian industry needs to think twice before having 5-6 month delays in the modern world.

    CBS has a lot of content, even without Showtime, to put on an aussie version of CBS Part Access. I think this deal is a winner, even for people who never watch Ten.

    If CBS adopt the same freemium model here they did in the US, then expect the others to follow and that would be a welcome change and the end of watching ads for many people who still have time for free to air TV.

  2. CBS is going to have to first come to terms with Australian viewer preferences, Australians are a lot more discerning about what they like to watch, American audiences also have a surfeit of TV programming of all types to choose from in a competitively priced market, something Australia with a smaller population cannot enjoy.

    1. That was my hope as well, with CBS All Access having the rights to stream NFL games, College Football, College Basketball and major Golf Tournaments in the US, if they bring those here and can get the NRL/AFL off Telstra it will be glorious. Especially with CBS All Acesss being a TV App, would love to have thje ability to watch the AFL at the very least on a full screen instead of the small thing in the corner Telstra offer (even mirror cast it’s a shocker).

      Before anyone says it, yes I could go with Foxtel and get Sports, however not interested in having to get the Basic Package to get it, if it was seperate on Foxtel via the Net then yeah I’d buy a seasons pass, until then I’ll suffer through with the inferior Telstra AFL Streaming service.

  3. There is no way I’m going to pay for yet another SVOD when CBS All Access launches. They should just take their money from Stan and Netflix for licensing their shows as they will quickly find there are only so many SVOD’s we will pay money for.

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