Following a similar announcement from HBO on Monday, CBS chief Leslie Moonves said his company is planning to offer Showtime as a standalone streaming subscription service in the near future.
During a recent speaking engagement, Moonves said it's clear the days of the 150-channel universe in the home are rapidly changing and that people are slicing and dicing it in different ways. HBO's formal announcement during Apple's recent smartwatch event only accelerated conversations to get a standalone service out the door.
Moonves didn't provide any other details regarding the planned subscription-based service outside of acknowledging that the floodgates are now open. Truer words were never spoken.
If you haven't yet noticed, cable and satellite television providers are quickly losing one of the few services that have kept some subscribers tethered to pay television - premium channels. By unbundling these channels and pricing them at the same amount as one would pay on top of a traditional cable package, networks are essentially eliminating the middleman.
It's a move that will no doubt prompt droves of people to ditch cable in favor of these semi a la carte options that'll offer flexible access to hit shows like Game of Thrones and Homeland without the need (and expense) of a standard cable bundle.
If CBS is willing to offer its standalone Showtime subscription for less than what people pay cable providers (doubtful), they'd stand to make even more money and really put the squeeze on traditional providers.