Cablevision (CVC) Courts Cable TV-Cutters With CBS All Access And Showtime For Optimum Internet Subscribers

Optimum Online subscribers who love “The Big Bang Theory” and “NCIS,” the two most watched television shows, or former critical darling “Homeland," are in luck. Cablevision will become the first cable or satellite provider to offer CBS All Access and Showtime’s streaming service to its customers.

This is Cablevision's latest attempt to target cord cutters. In the spring, it launched Optimum products for cord cutters and was also the first provider to distribute HBO Now and Hulu's subcription streaming service. Earlier this summer, Comcast, also with its eye on cord cutters, announced plans to launch Stream, a streaming service that included a bundle of broadcast networks and HBO and was only available to Comcast Xfinity Internet subscribers.

Announced early Tuesday morning via press release, this deal is part of a larger agreement between Cablevision and CBS Corporation, which owns Showtime, renewing a content carriage agreement that covers CBS-owned stations.

Unfortunately, pricing plans weren’t part of the announcement. Thus, it isn’t exactly clear how much more it will cost to switch to this Cablevision plan instead of just subscribing to each service on its own.

Released this summer, Showtime’s new stand-alone streaming service costs $11 per month after an initial free trial, and is available on Apple devices, Roku, Hulu and Playstation Vue. CBS All Access was launched last fall and costs $5.99 a month. With CBS All Access, you can watch both new episodes of shows the day after they air and, in select markets, you can watch live TV.

“This comprehensive agreement builds on our strong relationship with CBS and insures that every Optimum customer gets the highly popular CBS content they want across multiple platforms and screens,” Tom Montemagno, Cablevision’s executive vice president of programming, said in a statement. “As the first distributor to agree to provide CBS’ new Internet services, Cablevision continues to expand its portfolio of next-generation offerings, connecting customers to the programming they value and where they want it.”