MUMBAI: In a ten-year agreement with Comcast Corp., CBS Corp. has allowed the former to carry programming from its television stations. The so-called retransmission consent deal expires in 2020.
CBS and Comcast’s agreement offers flexibility for making money from shows and movies across new media, including putting programmes online for paying cable customers.
The contract also provides customers of Comcast with Showtime Networks, the expanded distribution of CBS College Sports and more on-demand access to CBS and Showtime online and on TV.
CBS chief executive officer Leslie Moonves said that the deal boosts the future prospects for retransmission fees and gives long-term stability for the Showtime pay-TV channel.
CBS and Philadelphia-based Comcast were able to strike a deal without the disruption in TV service that came during other similar talks this year. "The negotiations were wrapped up a year and a half before the expiration of CBS’s prior contract with Comcast, and Showtime’s agreement was up “shortly,” Moonves said.
CBS will likely receive 50 cents a month per subscriber from Comcast starting in 2012, making the contract worth about $75 million that year, estimates Anthony DiClemente, an analyst with Barclays Capital in New York. The fee will steadily rise to more than $1 per subscriber by 2020, he said in a report.
Last month Comcast had pledged to US regulators that it would negotiate in good faith with TV-station owners after its planned takeover of General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal.
