HOLLYWOOD and TORONTO – Bet on this being a topic at the CRTC’s TV policy review come November.
CBS Paramount International Television and Rogers Cable announced today the two have "reached an unprecedented agreement" to offer Survivor: Cook Islands through Rogers’ video on demand platform.
This is the first time Canadian audiences will be able to access Survivor on VOD. Episodes will be available to Rogers Personal TV customers with a digital box beginning Friday, September 15, 2006. Each episode will be available after the broadcast on Thursday nights on Global Television in Canada. Survivor: Cook Islands premieres tomorrow.
This is the first-ever major U.S. studio VOD agreement for one of its current primetime series.
What will sting for Global Television – and will for all of Canada’s conventional broadcasters shortly – is that this deal and others like it which are sure to come, bypasses them completely. Once, Global was the sole supplier of Survivor in Canada, with its ads inserted on top of the U.S. CBS signal by the cable companies, thanks to the Canadian simultaneous substitution policy. Rogers’ new VOD feed of Survivor, which can be manipulated like a DVD, will show no ads.
And, being available on demand so quickly after the original air time, it will pull some viewers away from the "first run" of the broadcast on Global. Anyone with a Rogers digital box can access its VOD slate. The move is great for viewers. Great for Survivor. Great for Rogers. Maybe not so great for Global, which needs as many folks as possible watching the show – and the commercials around it.
“CBS Paramount is pleased to partner with Rogers on this groundbreaking agreement," said Armando Nuñez, Jr., president, CBS Paramount International Television. "We are using these new platforms to give viewers additional ways to stay engaged with their favorite television show.”
"Rogers has reached a new milestone by adding Survivor On Demand," said David Purdy, vice-president and general manager, television services for Rogers Cable. "Rogers is giving Survivor fans first-of-its-kind access to this great show, allowing our customers instant access to Survivor episodes, and complete control so they can watch them whenever they want, as many times as they want with the ability to pause, rewind and fast-forward just like a DVD."
– Greg O’Brien
