CBS News Overhauls Streaming Operation, Expanding Shows And Doubling Live Hours

CBS News is rebooting its streaming efforts, expanding live coverage, lengthening shows like The Daily Report with John Dickerson and rebranding its flagship service.

Formerly known as the CBS News Streaming Network, the free, ad-supported offering as of April 22 will be called CBS News 24/7. Featuring original reporting from the broadcast news division as well as local stations, the streaming service will add new programming and double the amount of live hours it brings to viewers. It helped propel CBS News to a total of more than 21 billion minutes of streaming in 2023.

Wendy McMahon, who was upped to president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures last summer, described the set of changes as a “decidedly ambitious evolution of our streaming efforts.” Prior to CBS Corp. merging with Viacom to form what is now Paramount Global, CBS News blazed a trail in streaming, lighting up its own app before CBS All-Access launched in 2015. A decade later, particularly in an election year, the company saw a need to evolve further.

“Our commitment is to mirror on the stream the same level of world-class reporting and analysis that CBS News viewers expect from our television broadcasts,” said CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews. The expansion of America Decides and the premiere of CBS News Confirmed “are just a few of the ways in which we are driving the next generation of viewers to this high-quality reporting that sets CBS News apart.”

Along with more live news coverage, CBS News 24/7 in June will debut a live, one-hour “whip-around” newscast to capture events in real time. The show will be the “backbone” of the offering’s round-the clock proposition, a press release said.

The election-themed America Decides will expand to one hour on April 22, with episodes airing Mondays through Thursdays starting at 5 p.m. ET. Dickerson’s Daily Report will go from an hour to 90 minutes later this spring, streaming Monday through Thursday at 6 p.m. CBS News Confirmed, premiering this summer, is described as an effort to identify and report on misinformation. It is part of an entire unit bearing the same name as an effort to help viewers sort fact from fiction.

Library episodes of CBS News mainstays like 60 Minutes, 48 Hours and Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts will also be featured in marathons on CBS News 24/7. CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell will also stream weeknights at 10 p.m. ET. Despite the steady growth of streaming, pay-TV news purveyors have to walk a delicate line with the distribution partners paying carriage fees for CBS stations. That affiliate model differs from that of free streaming, which emphasizes advertising revenue. Delaying streams of marquee linear shows is a common tactic of avoiding diplomatic friction.