CBS launched what may be the modern media-industry version of a CNN with a new broadband-distributed news feed that will send live, anchored news programming to Internet-connected TVs and other devices - an attempt by the company to monetize its CBS News unit without the old-world hassle of building a cable-TV network to do so.
The new outlet, dubbed CBSN, will be available on CBSNews.com and its mobile website and selected connected TV devices - including Amazon Fire TV, Roku players and Roku TV, and others, as well as a newly launched CBS News app for Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Phone 8/8.1 The company said CBSN will also be available on the CBS News apps for Android and other leading platforms before the end of the year.
By launching the programming effort, CBS is moving to attract a populace that has already embraced mobile devices as a means of getting much of its information about the world. Getting up to speed in this new era is paramount for TV-news players, who are seeing their audiences defect to social media and mobile devices to get the latest developments in sports, weather, business and news of national and international import.Indeed, Pew Research data shows that "between 2010 and 2012, the number of U.S. adults who said they watched cable news regularly fell 5 percentage points, from 39% to 34%. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who said they got news regularly from social networks rose 13 points to 20%, and those who got news regularly from a mobile device rose 6 points to 15%."
Rivals are also moving full-bore. CNN has unveiled CNNGo, a service that allows viewers to choose the video segments they want to stream. NBC News is the owner of Breaking News, a service that sends headlines via digital feeds when it discovers reliable accounts of important events as they happen.
CBS said the feed would sport a live, 60-minute format, with anchors delivering live updated news between 9 a.m. and midnight eastern every day. Viewers will have the ability to watch previous segments and jump back into live programming as they wish, and will have that functionality across devices
The programming will come with advertising. Inaugural sponsors include Amazon and Microsoft, CBS said, noting other advertisers will also take part in the service.
© 2025 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.