CBS All Access added new content on July 30 – still mostly for TV fans

On July 30, CBS All Access not so quietly added more content for subscribers, including hubs a la HBO Max for Bet, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickoledean and Smithsonian Channel.

As mentioned previously (see: CBS All Access Working on Greatly Expanded Library For Release in 2021), CBS doesn’t want their flagship streaming channel to be a niche, also-ran with a few good old classic TV shows, a smattering of movies, Star Trek and some other new shows.

CBS All Access showed a bit of its hand today, announcing it added some 3,500 episodes to its service from roughly 70 new shows, including series from BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, TV Land, VH1, and the Smithsonian Channel. It’s also added more Paramount Pictures flicks since its initial announcement in May, with more than 150 movies now available to stream. That’s on top of CBS’s already expansive library on the service.

Hold Onto Your Peacock, CBS All Access Just Got Better

We resubscribed late last month in preparation to watch Star Trek: Lower Decks (FIRST LOOK) and Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone Season 2. I binged all episodes of the latter one and enjoyed it a little more than the first season. Am waiting for them to release the black and white versions, as I enjoy watching that series (more) desaturated. Weird? Nah, just classic minded I guess. I think of Twilight Zone in black and white, not color.

At any rate, what else has new has been added of interest to CBS All Access, or what was there all along that we haven’t paid much attention to?

A few more movies added

Emphasis on the word “few.” You can quick scroll from top to bottom all the movies A-Z on CBS in very short order. I’d say, without counting, that’s it’s less than 200 total movies.

By contract, HBO Max has around 1,000 or more. Peacock? Less than HBO Max but an overall decent amount of titles (see: ). Netflix has over 3,000 movies. Amazon Prime has over 10,000 movies – sure, most aren’t worth watching, but they slay all competition in the volume department. Hulu for number of movies is somewhere between CBS and Peacock. If you want Marvel, Star Wars or classic Disney, well Disney+ has you covered.

After this update, CBS still isn’t exactly a destination for movie lovers — yet. They are reportedly working on a rebranding in 2021 and adding even more movies.

Live CBS TV – has it been there all along?

Live TV is something I wasn’t really aware they offered before — and maybe it’s been there all along — but sure enough we can watch the local CBS channel as part of the subscription. That’s cool for watching news. We also get that through locast.org and if I we installed an over the air antennae, we’d get even more free local broadcast.

This would be useful for watching the NFL Sunday CBS broadcasted games, coming up in a couple months. I don’t know if/when they broadcast any MLB, but that would be of interest.

MTV – Aeon Flux, Beavis & Butthead, Celebrity Death Match

Something I was looking around to watch recently after seeing Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux was the original animated series.

Good news for fans, as season 1 of Aeon Flux is now available on CBS All Access.

Celebrity Death Match Season 5 and 6, Beavis & Butthead Season 1-3 are also available.

CBS All Access is a decent value for TV fans and they made it a little better.

What are CBS All Access streaming competitors doing with Live TV?

I wish that Disney+ included live TV for Fox. So +1 for Live TV offering from CBS, even if we rarely watch live TV, at least we know it’s there as part of the subscription.

Peacock sort of flirts around with Live coverage, offering some Live Sports and organizes some of their TV content as “live channels.” It’s not the same as offering the full live TV channel, but at least they are moving in that direction.

Netflix offers no live TV, they are strictly on demand streaming. While this has worked well for them to date, one could see them being behind the curve in this area as more cord cutters move to streaming but also desire some amount of Live TV programming.

Amazon Prime has flirted with live TV, offering Thursday night NFL football games. Think I watched one of them and it was done well. There are rumors circulating that they are working on adding 24/7 live TV, no idea how much more they will charge or if this will be included as part of an existing Prime subscription.

HBO Max is all on demand. They don’t offer any access to their cable TV and satellite Live TV channels.

Hulu offers Live TV as a paid add-on service.

Will CBS All Access Rebranding Really Matter?

This could and probably should be a separate post, because I have a lot to say about name and branding changes, but will summarize here.

I don’t care that much about names and branding. Sure, it makes sites easier to visit on the web if their name isn’t Quibi, but what is CBS All Access going to rebrand to? Don’t think that’s been announced yet, but if they want to attract more movie fans, than they need to bulk up their movie library. Their TV offering is compelling enough to bring us back once or twice a year.

It’s their originals right now, as mentioned above, that caused us to resubscribe. I might have resubscribed to check out Aeon Flux because that’s not available anywhere else and costs $1.99 an episode on Google Play. Can binge the whole first season as part of the subscription, so excited there.. Also, I’d definitely be interested in revisiting Beavis & Butthead. Fondly remember that MTV show.

Will Star Trek: Lower Decks be a hit or miss? Don’t know, but am looking more forward to checking that out next week when it debuts.

What are you looking most forward to seeing on CBS All Access? Anything there now or coming soon?

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