CBS Launches New App With Full Episode Streaming

iPad and iPhone users will be able to view most primetime programming eight days after broadcast

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/14/2013 10:33:18 AM

CBS has launched a new app for CBS app for iPhone and iPad users that will offer streams of full episodes. It is the first time CBS has allowed users to stream full primetime episodes on a free app.

With the app, most primetime shows will be available for streaming eight days after broadcast while daytime and late-night programming will be available 24 hours after airing.

The app will also include second screen features for a number of popular prime time shows, including NCIS, The Good Wife, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and others.

Later this year, CBS plans to launch similar full-episode streaming apps "for all major mobile and tablet platforms later this year, including Android and Windows 8," the company noted.

Buick is the official launch partner for the new CBS App, which h will offer users CBS programming with reduced commercial interruption for the first several weeks after launch.

"We have been methodically and strategically finding new ways to satiate the appetite for our content on new platforms, while tapping into the tremendous revenue provided by doing so," said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO, CBS Corp. in a statement. "Our announcement today achieves both of these objectives, while protecting our very healthy current ecosystem. In addition, by making our shows available on all the leading mobile devices out there, we are confident we will bring a whole new set of viewers to the CBS Television Network and build upon our standing as the No. 1 network in the business."

CBS has previously offered a CBS Connect app for second screen experiences, which will be integrated into the new CBS app by the start of the fall TV season.

When that occurs the CBS App will offer integrated social feeds; live events that allow fans to engage directly with talent; and second-screen experiences that are synched to the broadcast for such shows as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds, Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS: Los Angeles.