A new ViacomCBS streaming service is coming and currently being referred to as “House of Brands.” It was already rumored that ViacomCBS was planning on launching a new streaming option, however, the company has now confirmed the plans as well as the name.
Viacom and CBS merged recently into the new ViacomCBS company. Following this, rumors started circulating and suggesting the company was looking to launch a new streaming service that combined many of the brands and IP of both Viacom and CBS. While the reports suggested this was happening, finer details including the name remained unknown.
During the first-ever ViacomCBS earnings call, the company confirmed it was working on a new service and that it is currently branding as “House of Brands.” In addition, the company said it will build on the product offered by CBS All Access through the addition of TV and movie content pulled from the other brands owned by the company. Some of the brands mentioned as set to be included in the “House” service are Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Smithsonian, and Paramount Movies. All in, 30,000 episodes of TV and up to 1,000 movies are expected to become available through the new streaming service.
House of Brands sounds a lot like CBS All Access Max
Without more details on the service, it sounds like ViacomCBS is going down a similar route as HBO Max with its new House of Brands service.
HBO Max is due to launch in the coming months and offers HBO customers a way to access additional content owned by WarnerMedia, but keeping the existing HBO service for those who just want access to HBO content. ViacomCBS appears to be emulating this strategy by offering two services that in principle are both driven by CBS All Access, but with one of them opening up customers to content available from the parent company’s other brands.
What remains to be known is how much House of Brands will cost. For example, WarnerMedia opted to launch HBO Max at the exact same price as the standard HBO service. While that sounds counter-intuitive due to how much more content you get with the Max service, that’s the point – WarnerMedia wants to migrate all existing HBO subscribers over to the new Max service.
Whether ViacomCBS takes the same route remains to be seen but CBS All Access does already come with two tiers – ad-supported and ad-free. Therefore, it would not be unrealistic for ViacomCBS to add a third slightly more expensive tier for those who want access to the additional House of Brands content.
Source: ViacomCBS
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