CBS Affils Can Earn $1 Per Sub On All Access

CBS affiliates that participate in CBS All Access by contributing their linear signals to the OTT service within their markets can earn between 50 cents and $1 per sub per month, according to a CBS affiliate familiar with the deal.

The revenue split is embedded in a “template” negotiated between CBS and the CBS affiliate board, the source said. Individual affiliates may opt to use the template or negotiate their own terms.

What the affiliates earn through the CBS-board deal would depend on how many subscribers sign on, the source said. The greater the number of subs, the greater the cut — up to $1.

CBS launched All Access last October in the 16 markets where it owns CBS stations, offering it directly to consumers for $5.99 a month.

In addition to the live signals of the O&Os, the service includes on-demand access to most current CBS shows and many of its popular shows from the past. Notably absent from the service is the NFL, for which CBS has yet to get permission to distribute online.

At the Deutsche Bank media conference last Wednesday, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves declined to say how many subscribers All Access has signed on, but he did say that it was more than the 100,000 that Dish Network is said to have amassed for its all-cable Sling OTT service. It’s been “beyond our projections,” Moonves said.

One hundred thousand subs represents only a tiny fraction of the 43 million homes in CBS O&O markets where CBS All Access is now available; it would, at $5.99 a month, generate $7.2 million in revenue annually from subscriptions alone.

During the session, Moonves noted that CBS was close to a deal with the affiliates that would extend the reach of the service. “We expect All Access to be launched throughout the country within a few months.”

“We were the first OTT offering that offers our affiliates a piece of the action, so they are incentivized to push it, to promote it.”

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