CBS Sports has just joined Apple TV this week. It joins 120 Sports, ACC, ESPN, MLB.TV, MLS, NBA, NBC Sports, NFL Now, NHL, Tennis Channel and WWE Network for sports content on the set top box. However, many of the other apps, CBS’ app is more of a short-form clips channel and there’s no live streaming.
CBS has the rights to college basketball and football games, in particular SEC football, the NCAA Tournament, NFL (AFC Sunday afternoon and Thursday Night Football), the PGA Tour as well as The Masters and PGA Championship. It has the rights to stream most of its content online as it has on the CBS Sports mobile and tablet apps. And while it hasn’t streamed regular season NFL games, it has elected to put NFL postseason games online including Super Bowl XLVII from New Orleans.
The CBS Sports Apple TV app does not have any live streaming of CBS Sports Network programming as thus far, the network has not launched a “TV Everywhere” initiative unlike ESPN, Fox and NBC. There are video clips from Boomer & Carton, Doug Gottlieb and the now-defunct ROME, plus some original content including fantasy information, but at least for the time being, there isn’t any live programming.
Marc DeBevoise, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Sports, Entertainment and News for CBS Interactive, told Awful Announcing that while there aren’t be any live events on the CBS Sports Apple TV and Roku apps, that doesn’t mean there won’t be in the long-term. “We don’t have anything to announce right now,” DeBevoise said, but said CBS is open to streaming events down the road. Reading through the tea leaves, expect to see SEC Football and other games down the line maybe even as soon as this fall.
DeBevoise said CBS can stream live events on its platforms, it’s just finding the right manner to do so. He notes that unlike the NBC and ESPN apps, there’s no need to authenticate for CBS.
So as it stands now, the CBS Sports app is not live streaming, but we’ll keep you up to date when it changes.
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