ViacomCBS Networks International is poised to potentially change the streaming game in an astonishingly complex way, thanks to plans for a brand-encompassing, all-demographics-aimed streamer by the corporate giant.
VCNI has announced that it will launch a yet-to-be named international “super-sized” premium streaming platform in the first quarter of 2021. Said platform will feature a surreal variety of content culled from its subsidiary platforms, most notably premium cable channel Showtime and subscription streamer CBS All Access, adding to the library of the latter, which is already set to feature content from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Network, along with movies from Paramount Pictures. However, for now, the emphasis on this streamer must be placed on “international,” since the initial launch will only see it arrive in Australia, Latin America (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) and the Nordics. As David Lynn, President and CEO of VCNI, expresses in a statement:
It seems that the service’s initial launch might be designed to test the wider global waters for more ambitious designs. Indeed, Variety reports that the new service is already being planned to as an outright replacement for the still-young CBS All Access in Australia. Tellingly, the report also indicates that more international markets are planned to receive this monolithic upgrade of sorts to their existing VCNI streaming uses, and that could eventually affect the United States, in which CBS All Access (which recently announced an international brand expansion,) continues to thrive as a one-stop hub for all things Star Trek, and a modest lineup of other originals such as Jordan Peele’s reboot series of The Twilight Zone. Yet, the States have already started to see some of this corporate-umbrella streaming consolidation with the recent move of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise to CBS All Access, with spinoff series Kamp Koral and the originally-theater-aimed third feature film both set for 2021 premieres on the platform, joined by the entire back catalogue.
Regardless, ViacomCBS is making major moves with this supersized streamer, which, in a clever bit of strategy will be built upon an already-vast existing global infrastructure and existing distribution partners, which could lead to an exponential international expansion. Consequently, while this news won’t affect American markets just yet, it’s a clear sign of things to come.
