The CBS All Access subscription service can now be purchased through the Channels feature in the Apple TV app, following news that it would be launching earlier this week.
Apple in March unveiled a redesigned TV app with the "Apple TV Channels" feature, designed to let users sign up for and watch third-party subscription services right in the TV app on iOS and tvOS.
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CBS All Access was listed as one of the upcoming channels, but the channel wasn't available when the TV app first launched.
Apple users who want to sign up for CBS All Access can now do so through the Apple TV app. The service is priced at $9.99 per month, but there is a 7-day free trial available.
With a CBS All Access subscription purchased through the Channels feature, CBS All Access content can be watched directly in the TV app. The service offers access to live TV shows, sporting events, and more than 10,000 on-demand episodes from CBS shows.
Many other subscription services also work with the TV app channels feature, including Cinemax, EPIX, HBO, MTV Hits, Showtime, Smithsonian, Starz, Tastemade, and more.
(Thanks, Nico!)
Top Rated Comments
This trend isn't going to end well for anyone. It was one thing when there were a handful of streaming services that had huge libraries of content (Netflix, Hulu, HBO) and people were really drawn to the idea that they could ditch $60+ cable service with its mind-numbing commercials and horrible interface that worked on 1 device, in favor of internet based streaming on all devices, for around $8/mon each for your choice of 2-3 services.
Well, that's over. Every streaming service has stopped spending the money to license archive content, and dumped it all into terrible original content. Then they realized that doesn't pay the bills, so they've all raised their prices beyond what any of them used to be worth, let alone are today. After at least 10 years as a Netflix subscriber I gleefully canceled this month, because I'm not going to be subjected to continued price increases while content gets simultaneously stripped away.
Then you have Apple completely misreading the landscape and thinking they have any chance at all of getting a single subscriber to a service of all originals...when all anyone ever wanted was a subscription to the iTunes Store video content...or at the very least a subsidy on 3rd party services bought through the platform.
They are all greedy and out to lunch here, making the same mistakes the music industry made...driving more and more piracy through their own actions. Is the entire Apple Music library worth more than $9.99/month? Of course! But no one would pay it, and so the price is fair and reasonable and people pay it without question because of the value. Nothing like Apple Music, in terms of value for the dollar, exists for video today.
In the end, networks and content holders are going to do poorly running their own apps with their own small bits of content, demanding the same or more money than all the freaking music in the world is worth. And consumers will continue to have to do without because the value isn't there.
Apple TV Channels is absolutely the way to go in terms of distribution and user experience, but it is a mouse fart of an effort with so few channels available and prices so ridiculously high. Apple needs to step in and subsidize these services, heavily, for Apple customers. Apple should pass on their cut from subscription services directly to the customer, and then some.
Apple hasn’t announced what their originals are going to cost but they’ve hinted that they will be releasing about one show a month. You’re kind of insane if you believe they’re going to charge $9.99 per month for a show a month. I anticipate one of these three models:
1. Apple Music + TV as a new subscription for a price either just slightly above the current $9.99 Music subscription or at that price.
2. AppleTV+ included with the subscription of one or more channels. Those channels fill the role of the third party content while Apple’s content is included with the package. Apple doesn’t have to license content and instead lets others offer it within AppleTV and gets to keep a commission.
3. An Apple+ services subscription with Music, TV, News, Books and Arcade included. iCloud data and AppleCare might be a part of the package.
Apple simply doesn’t have enough TV content to charge a Netflix class price. They do however have access to a lot of content throughout all of their services. So can use their TV content as a sweetener or an add-on to their other services.