Count a win for ad haters today: CBS Corporation announced that it has added an commercial-free plan to CBS All Access, the network’s subscription streaming service.
Don’t expect ads to be removed without a cost, though. The new plan is priced at $10 per month, which costs $4 more per month than the “limited commercial” alternative. In adding a second tier, CBS follows the lead of fellow streamers, including YouTube and Hulu, which have given subscribers the option to pay for a commercial-free viewing experience. The move allows consumers to better tailor their streaming subscription to their own personal wants.
“The foundation of CBS All Access is not only about giving CBS fans access to more of the content they want, but also giving them more choice in how they watch their favorite CBS programming,” said Marc DeBevoise, president and chief operating officer of CBS Interactive, in a statement.
“The addition of a commercial-free plan gives our subscribers even more ways to customize their CBS viewing experience — from which devices to whether they watch in or out of the home, and now with commercials or without.”
CBS highlighted the new option in a tweet today.
Stream your favorite shows on demand – now commercial free – on #CBSAllAccess! Get started: https://t.co/e6tsL01w3F pic.twitter.com/3Qz2qfbf09
— CBS (@CBS) August 31, 2016
Both plans allow users to watch CBS All Access’ huge library of on-demand content, which includes full current seasons of primetime, late-night, daytime, and news shows. The network’s much-anticipated Star Trek: Discovery will also be available to stream without commercials when it premieres in 2017. There are some exceptions to ad-free streaming, though: Viewers will still see commercials during live broadcasts, just as they would on TV. Additionally, select on-demand shows will include what CBS calls “promotional interruptions.”
CBS All Access subscribers are able to use the service online, on mobile devices and tablets, and on numerous streaming devices and gaming consoles.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?