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CBS Corporation today announced its first quarter financial results for 2019, which included a follow-up conference call with the trade press. During the call, the interim CEO of CBS spoke about CBS Access' s international expansion project and also explained how the Picard issue would draw abroad.
Discovery Season 2 Helps Offer the Best Quarter to Date for All Access
Acting CEO Joe Ianniello spoke of the continued growth of CBS All Access, Star Trek's TV home, claiming that the first quarter of the year had seen a 71% increase in subscriptions. He used the growth of All Access as an example of the profitability of the company's investments in programming:
The driving force of our services directly to consumers and from all over our society is our essential essential content and we continue to increase our production. This year, we are on track to invest more than $ 8 billion in programming … The benefits of this content-driven strategy were fully exposed to CBS All Access in the first quarter. Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery started in January and the return of The good fight abandoned in March. Add to that the Super Bowl LIII and March Madness and CBS All Access had its biggest quarter of[scription] growth never. The dynamic continues here in Q2 with the The twilight zone, which was the first most watched original movie on CBS All Access and we have just renewed for a second season.
Earlier this year, CBS had already announced it had exceeded its target of 8 million subscribers (split evenly between CBS All Access and Showtime) and the interim CEO said the last quarter was the most optimistic for the company. future, noting:
Between our investment in content and our expansion into new platforms, we feel even better today than we did a quarter ago to reach our goal. [domestic] goal of 25 million submarines direct to consumers in 2022.
Jim Lanzone, director of CBS Interactive, was also present at the call. He also stressed that investing in more original content was essential to retain subscribers:
We were very happy to see many unused users return to All Access when they return seasonally for their favorite content. We believe that these users "suspend" their membership instead of canceling it in the traditional sense. The data suggests that our investment in content on the Canadian television channel will be our most effective tool to eliminate or reduce the pause cycle for these users, as well as to deepen their engagement.
The global appeal of the Picard show
In reviewing the original programming planned for CBS All Access in 2019, Ianniello added an interesting note:
We will be launching a brand new Star Trek series starring Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, which will have a strong international appeal.
It should be noted that the CEO spoke of the international attractiveness of the show Picard, because we do not know when and where the show will be available outside the United States. The Picard show is expected to debut in the US on CBS All Access later in 2019 and go into production in April.
While the Star Trek: Discovery An exclusive international agreement with Netflix was announced early in its development. CBS has not yet announced how the new Picard show will be distributed around the world. Sending to TrekMovie in March, Picard's executive producer of the show, Alex Kurtzman, said the information on the international cast of the show "will arrive very soon".
All Access Global Heads to Latin America and Western Europe
A possible venue for the Picard show would be All Access outside of the United States. Although the service is currently only available in two countries, Ianniello said it would change:
We launched All Access in Canada a year ago and we followed up with 10 All Access in Australia last fall. Then, we will launch our direct sales services to consumers in Latin America and Western Europe, two regions in which we see a high growth potential and a strong interest in our premium content.
When pressed during the question-and-answer session, the CEO did not commit to a specific timetable for international expansion, saying he took his time and was methodical, adding, "We are going so fast as much as possible but in depth, focused on the offer to the consumer is robust. But he also said that CBS was committed to rolling subscription streaming in 200 countries around the world, adding that he "was probably the single biggest opportunity that lay ahead.
Ianniello said the company would be pragmatic about international licensing in territories where it plans to expand its own service:
It's country by country and franchise free. I do not think we are saying anything now or in the future that we will not license third parties for content. Sometimes, if they can pay you more money because they have the best infrastructure to monetize it, we will use that money and reinvest it in our businesses.
Note: The article has been updated to include longer quotations from the call to the investor for more context.
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