CBS finally admits the existence of the Internet. Releases streaming app for iOS.
I was beginning to believe that they were going to die with their aging viewers.
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CBS launches streaming app, signaling new era for TV viewing
Fans of The Big Bang Theory can rejoice: CBS joined the iOS age on Thursday, releasing its own app to stream the networks shows to the iPhone and iPada move that comes just as the broader television industry prepares to finally start counting cord-cutting TV watchers as part of its official viewership numbers.
The new CBS Interactive app will feature some of the networks shows the day after airingnamely, the daily daytime and late night content. The more desirable primetime episodes, however, wont be available until eight days after theyre broadcast. Thats the same deal that Fox has made in providing its show through Hulu and the Hulu Plus app; NBC and ABC, by contrast, generally make their programs available the next day through their respective network apps, and through Hulu.
CBS may seem late to the game, but its timing is no doubt very deliberate: The app comes just a few weeks after reports that that Nielsenwhich tracks the TV viewership that allows networks to set their advertising rateswill finally begin to measure online viewing numbers. Reportedly, Nielsen plans to phase in its new tracking program by measuring iPad viewing by the end of this year.
That may have removed the last roadblock to CBSs arrival on iOS. Television executives have long worried that online viewers cannibalize live-TV viewership for their shows, depressing the official ratings and driving advertisers away. (Conversely, advocates for some low-rated shows with devoted followingsthink of NBCs perpetually-about-to-be-canceled Communityhave long argued that those official ratings, by omitting the online audience, actually vastly underestimate a shows viewership and potential value to advertisers.) With iPad viewership now included in the count, those cannibalization fears should recedeand those bubble shows may have more of a fighting chance for survival.
http://www.macworld.com/article/2030835/cbs-launches-streaming-app-signaling-new-era-for-tv-viewing.html