The announcement has come through this afternoon that CBS and Viacom will be merging as one company, creating “ViacomCBS.”
Viacom CEO Bob Bakish is set to be the CEO of ViacomCBS who said this about this merger:
“Today marks an important day for CBS and Viacom, as we unite our complementary assetsand capabilities and become one of only a few companies with the breadth and depth of content and reach to shape the future of our industry. Our unique ability to produce premium and popular content for global audiences at scale – for our own platforms and for our partners around the world – will enable us to maximize our business for today, while positioning us tolead for years to come. As we look to the future, I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities ahead for the combinedcompany and all of our stakeholders – including consumers, the creative community, commercial partners, employees and,of course, our shareholders.”
The companies were merged together briefly in the 21st century, which is one of the reasons you saw programming blocks like Nickelodeon on CBS back in the early and mid-2000s, which ended in 2006.
One of the big focuses in the merger is going to be on streaming content. CBS does have their own streaming service, CBS All Access, and Viacom now owning Pluto TV as of 2019.
Still, now that the merger looks to be a done deal, CBS will now have access to Viacom’s media content, which includes programming from channels such as Nickelodeon, MTV, CMT, BET and many others. What it could mean is that it could go to CBS All Access, making it so that all of those users could get access to current and older programming from those channels.
It also means that current Viacom-owned programming that is on other streaming services could be moved and placed on CBS’s. One show that I could think of would be Drake and Josh (from Nickelodeon) on Hulu. ViacomCBS could eventually make it so that the series (and others) are exclusively available on CBS All Access.
ViacomCBS says it will be able to offer a library (presumably on CBS All Access) of over 140,000 TV episodes and more than 3,600 movies.
In a statement provided from the Wall Street Journal:
“This library comprises 140,000+ TV episodes and 3,600+ film titles, and reunites fan-favorite franchises such as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. The combined company will also have more than 750 series currently ordered to or in production. In addition, it will include a major Hollywood film studio, Paramount Pictures, which creates and distributes feature-length entertainment around the world.”
CBS and Viacom will host a conference call with investors at 4:30 p.m. ET today to discuss this announcement. To listen to the conference call, click here.
