Smart Screen

CBS: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gave a Huge Lift to All Access Streaming Sign-Ups

The premiere of the new TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” provided a huge lift for CBS All Access streaming subscriptions, according to the network.

The show “broke a new record” for single-day subscriber sign-ups for the $5.99-a- month CBS digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service, topping the performance of its prior record holder, the 2017 Grammy Awards, it announced Sept. 25. But CBS didn’t provide specific sign-up data.

The first episode of the new “Star Trek” series premiered on the CBS linear broadcast network Sept. 24. But CBS is only making additional episodes of the series available to All Access members in its latest incentive to boost subscriptions, following the All Access-only “The Good Wife” spinoff “The Good Fight.” The second episode of “Discovery” was made available via streaming to All Access members right after the first show premiered on CBS.

The first two episodes of the latest “Star Trek” series remain available to stream on CBS All Access on demand, and all new episodes will be made available on demand weekly, after 8:30 p.m. ET on Sundays, exclusively for the service’s subscribers in the U.S., CBS said.

CBS All Access also had its best week and month to date for sign-ups thanks to the new show, as well as the fall kick-off of the NFL On CBS on the service’s live local feeds and the season finale of its reality show “Big Brother” and live feeds related to that show, the company said.

CBS All Access also premiered the first episode of “After Trek, Star Trek: Discovery,” a live companion after-show series hosted by Matt Mira. With it, the network is looking to take advantage of the growing popularity of live companion after-shows in the wake of such genre series as AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and its companion “Talking Dead.”

CBS All Access gives subscribers the ability to watch more than 9,000 episodes on demand in all and includes current shows from primetime, daytime and late night, as well as past seasons of select series and classic TV hits. All Access is currently available online at CBS.com, as well as on mobile devices via the CBS app for iOS, Android and Windows 10, and on Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Amazon’s Fire TV, and the video game consoles Xbox 360, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

CBS All Access and CBS’s Showtime OTT service combined are “set to exceed 4 million subscribers combined” by the end of 2017, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said in August, pointing out that’s “more than halfway” towards achieving the company’s previously stated goal of having 8 million subscribers by 2020 and it’s only year two of its five-year plan.