While the tech blogs breathlessly wait for HBO to announce that it's ditching bundled pay-TV services and offering its programming via a la carte streaming, its smaller premium cable rival, Showtime, seems to be closer to actually doing just that.
 |
|
Ianniello (Source: CBS) |
Speaking to investors at Thursday's Nomura Digital Media Conference in New York (attended by Deadline Hollywood's David Lieberman), CBS Corp. COO Joseph Ianniello noted that there isn't a provision in any of Showtime's pay-TV contracts that "restricts us from doing something direct to consumer."
Ianniello also pointed out that more than 10 million broadband households don't have pay-TV, and that Showtime must "evolve as a business to be sure we're where consumers want to be…You have to give it to them on their terms."
As Lieberman notes, the premium cable home of popular original series including Ray Donovan, Nurse Jackie, Masters Of Sex, and Homeland might just be posturing to get better promotion from its pay-TV partners, given that Showtime's penetration is in less than 20 percent of U.S. TV households.
For more:
- read this Deadline Hollywood story
Related links:
Analyst: HBO could add $600M to its bottom line by offering OTT option
Netflix surpasses HBO in Q2 sub revenue, closes fast on profit, analyst says
Investment analyst: Murdoch would take HBO out of pay-TV bundle, target Netflix