Amazon announced today that they’ve come to a content licensing agreement with CBS for Extant, which will include making each episode of the mystery thriller available streaming to Amazon Prime subscribers four days after their initial broadcast on CBS. Starring Halle Berry, Extant [2] centers on a female astronaut who’s trying to reconnect with her family when she returns after spending a year in space .”Her experiences lead to events that ultimately will change the course of human history.” Maddeningly vague, but intriguing. Plus, Halle Berry!
Amazon makes sure to point out that Prime[3] Instant Video is the only U.S. online subscription streaming service that enables offline viewing, as they allow Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX users to download streaming content off of Prime, which can come in handy for those who plan to be offline somewhere. Even for those who don’t have Kindle tablets, there’s a real benefit to the quick turnaround from broadcast to streaming in terms of getting or staying caught up on a new series. Rather than waiting weeks, months or longer to stream the show after it airs, as is how Netflix typically does it, Amazon Prime’s deal with CBS takes the Hulu approach in making the series available an episode at a time, shortly after it airs on TV. The benefit of this is that viewers don’t have to wait if they discover the series partway through the season and want to binge-watch to get caught up, and ideally, the series will benefit, as those binge-watchers may start tuning in to CBS to catch the new episodes as they air. Especially if the series proves to be a must-watch drama.
Given the ratings success Under the Dome [4] had last summer, it’s not particularly surprising that CBS might want to track through their own footprints to try to duplicate that win. Extant certainly sounds like it has the potential to be something great for the network, though we really only have that vague premise and the names Berry and Spielberg (or Amblin) to go on. But that’s a good enough start.
Extant is expected to premiere on CBS in June, which seems like an eternity away, but is really only six months. So hopefully we’ll start to see some promotional content for the drama that’ll give us some more clues as to what to expect from this new show.
References
- ^ available (www.cinemablend.com)
- ^ Extant (www.cinemablend.com)
- ^ Prime (www.cinemablend.com)
- ^ Under the Dome (www.amazon.com)
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