CBS All-Access and Showtime’s over-the-top subscription service are on track to hit eight million subscribers a year ahead of schedule, the company said on Thursday.
“Our direct-to-consumer platforms, CBS All Access and Showtime OTT, are greatly exceeding our expectations,” CBS chief Les Moonves said in a statement accompanying the company’s second quarter earnings report on Thursday.
“Our goal was to have eight million subscribers combined by 2020, and we are now on track to hit that number in 2019. For that reason, and based on our trajectory of growth in these services, we now predict that CBS All Access and Showtime OTT will have 16 million domestic subscribers by 2022.”
The company will have doubled its subscriber goal in just two years, Moonves said, if it hits the new mark.
In the company’s second quarter earnings results CBS reported that revenue from digital initiatives increased 70 percent in the quarter year-over-year. The company’s CBS All Access streaming platform has already seen success with original shows, such as “The Good Fight” and “Star Trek: Discovery.”
And during the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts and investors, Moonves said that Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series “Who Is America,” led to the highest number of OTT subscriber sign up in a single day.
“We produce more than 13 hours of original content a day. This allows us to continue to feed our streaming platform,” chief operations officer Joe Ianniello said during the conference call. “[We’re] going to see a ramp up with more original content driving growth in 2019 and 2020.”
Moonves noted that CBS is now producing 70 series across 10 different streaming platforms, including Netflix and Apple.
CBS on Thursday reported financial results that edged Wall Street expectations, reporting earnings of $1.12 per share, up from a year ago and just above analysts expectations of $1.11 per share, according to estimates gathered by Yahoo Finance.
Revenue for the quarter was $3.47 billion for the quarter, compared with the company’s $3.26 billion in revenue the company reported last year, and just above analysts’ $3.46 billion expectations.
“At a time when many companies are losing subscribers or cutting rates to maintain them, we are growing and as we do, our average subscriber rate is increasing at an even faster pace and the driving force behind this growth comes down to one thing, our premium content,” Moonves said.
9 Stars Who Couldn't Cut It as Murphy Brown's Secretary, From Hillary Clinton to JFK Jr (Photos)
"Murphy Brown" has returned to television on CBS for 13 episodes, with the new season premiere airing to modest ratings on Thursday. While a lot has changed in media since Candice Bergen's Brown hosted the fictional news broadcast "FYI," one thing that hasn't changed is how hard it is to find good help. One of the show's longest recurring gags was how nearly every week Brown had a wacky and incompetent new secretary, everyone from a man with a Hitler mustache to a pleasant looking woman who worshiped Satan. More than 90 people sat in that assistant's chair over the show's 10 seasons, including some celebrity cameos, but not one of them lasted.
Paul Reubens
Pee-Wee Herman himself helped out Murphy Brown, appearing in six episodes of the show as Stan Lansing's nephew.
CBS
Marcia Wallace
Before Marcia Wallace was Edna Krabappel on "The Simpsons," Wallace had a part on "The Bob Newhart Show" as Bob Hartley's dynamo of a receptionist Carol Bondurant. During a special crossover episode of "Murphy Brown," Carol proved to be Brown's best secretary ever, a real keeper. But at the end of the episode, Bob rushes into the office and begs for Carol to come back and work for him, despite Brown's pleading.
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John Kennedy Jr.
You can hear the women in the live audience swooning when it's revealed that John John is Brown's latest secretary. "I guess the lawyer thing didn't work out," Brown jokes. He wasn't there to work, but to drop off a "wedding present" that was just a fake cover of the magazine he edited, "George."
CBS
Kramer
When Kramer (Michael Richards) heads out to Los Angeles on an episode of "Seinfeld," Jerry and Elaine spot him on an episode of "Murphy Brown" as another new secretary. His rapid-fire typing is hysterical, and the show even teases that she has "a good feeling" about him.
NBC
Sally Field
Murphy Brown would've been lucky to have fellow single-mother Norma Rae as her secretary, or better yet her "Absence of Malice" journalist Megan Carter, but instead she got Kathleen Dubek, secretary 91.
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Rosie O'Donnell
The final season of "Murphy Brown" featured a cavalcade of celebrity cameos, including Rosie O'Donnell as a particularly annoying singing secretary.
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Don Rickles
Rickles would've been in his 70s by the time he stepped into the secretary job during the show's final season.
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Bette Midler
In the show's stellar finale, Bette Midler took charge as secretary Caprice Feldman. "Caprice! With two Cs, interlocking like Chanel!" Her wealthy socialite type was always told by her (dead) husband that she could never hold down a job. Well, she picked one with quite the track record.
CBS
Hillary Clinton
At least the former First Lady has some experience as a "secretary," telling Murphy Brown in the revival's season premiere that she worked as one for four years in a "very large organization." Not only that, she boasted that she's "qualified, and I'm ready on day one." She even joked she has "some experience with emails."
CBS
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No matter how famous, no secretary lasted long on the CBS sitcom
"Murphy Brown" has returned to television on CBS for 13 episodes, with the new season premiere airing to modest ratings on Thursday. While a lot has changed in media since Candice Bergen's Brown hosted the fictional news broadcast "FYI," one thing that hasn't changed is how hard it is to find good help. One of the show's longest recurring gags was how nearly every week Brown had a wacky and incompetent new secretary, everyone from a man with a Hitler mustache to a pleasant looking woman who worshiped Satan. More than 90 people sat in that assistant's chair over the show's 10 seasons, including some celebrity cameos, but not one of them lasted.