CBS Launches CBSN Digital Streaming News Network

The launch of CBSN, the first digital streaming news network, was announced on Thursday by CBS News and CBS Interactive. CBSN features live, anchored coverage 15 hours each weekday, which viewers will be able to watch on their Internet-connected TV and other devices 24 hours a day.

The ad-supported network's first sponsors include Microsoft and Amazon. Other advertisers will run within the service on all devices.

CBSN will be available on CBSNews.com and its mobile website, as well as key-connected TV devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku players and Roku TV, and the CBS News app for Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Phone 8/8.1. CBSN will be available on the CBS News apps for Android and other platforms at the end of the year.

News content will be delivered from 9 a.m. to midnight EST every weekday, in live, 60-minute formats. Viewers can control it like a DVR via an on-screen interface that allows them to watch earlier programs and jump back into live segments across devices. CBSN will include on-demand content, including video from CBS News’ archives, along with access to breaking news reports, feature stories and interviews. Veteran and new CBS correspondents will anchor the live stream.

“We are developing original content exclusively for online, connected platforms in a true interactive format that viewers can control, allowing them to lean back or lean in to the segments and stories that interest them," said Jim Lanzone, president and CEO of CBS Interactive.

Les Moonves, CBS Corporation’s president and CEO, has wanted to have a cable news network for years, and as late as July 2014 was on record expressing his interest in buying CNN. "We've always talked about doing things with CNN in the past," he told USA Today. "We'll see. It's something I'm sure we'll look at if it becomes available."