CBS launches ET Live free D2C
November 1, 2018
Marking its third specialist OTT service, US TV network CBS has launched ET Live, a free 24/7 direct-to-consumer streaming network dedicated to all things entertainment. Developed in close collaboration between CBS Interactive and CBS Television Distribution’s entertainment news magazine Entertainment Tonight, ET Live expands the Entertainment Tonight brand beyond television, catering to entertainment super-fans with live coverage of the day’s top stories.
ET Live taps into the legacy of Entertainment Tonight’s brand, taking advantage of its credibility, authority and access to deliver 24/7 programming covering the latest developing entertainment stories, breaking news, celebrity interviews, features, and behind-the-scenes and red carpet coverage, as well as celebrity fashion, beauty and lifestyle trends.
“From CBS All Access to CBSN and CBS Sports HQ, we are dedicated to bringing consumers best-in-class streaming services,” said Rob Gelick, Executive Vice President and General Manager, CBS Entertainment Digital for CBS Interactive. “ET Live is a natural expansion of our strategy and expertise in this area. We have the great advantage of being able to apply key learnings from our leading digital entertainment properties and marry that with the #1 entertainment brand in Entertainment Tonight to create a new offering for the next generation of entertainment consumers, those that are platform-agnostic and expect content to be accessible anytime, anywhere.”
“For almost four decades, Entertainment Tonight has set the gold standard for entertainment news, utilising our unique access to celebrities and sets to bring original reporting and great storytelling to every defining pop culture and entertainment topic and event,” said Becky Brooks, Senior Vice President of Multiplatform Programming for CBS Television Distribution. “We were the first to invent the daily entertainment news genre, and now the first to bring an always-on, 24/7 entertainment streaming channel to serve our expanding audience of loyal and new viewers.”
At launch, ET Live is available online at ETLive.com, via Android and iOS devices through the ET Live app, on Apple TV, and on Amazon Fire TV, with additional platforms coming soon.
In addition, ET Live will be integrated into the CBS All Access subscription service’s live feed across additional devices and platforms, giving users the ability to toggle between their live local CBS feed, CBSN and ET Live’s coverage. ET Live will also be available as a feed within CBSN, CBS’s 24/7 streaming news service, across additional devices and platforms.
ET Live replicates CBS’s highly-successful model used to launch CBSN, the 24/7 streaming news service from CBS News and CBS Interactive, and CBS Sports HQ, for sports news, highlights and analysis. As with CBSN and CBS Sports HQ, viewers will be able to control and personalise their experience – they can watch live, or jump back to watch previous segments on-demand depending on what they’re most interested in.