CBS and Optimum Parent Altice Reach New Carriage Deal

CBS and Optimum parent company Altice have reached a comprehensive, multi-year content carriage agreement, the two companies announced on Monday. The new deal covers retransmission consent for CBS-owned stations and the carriage of Showtime, CBS Sports Network, Pop TV and Smithsonian Channel on Altice’s Optimum and Suddenlink cable systems. It also enables Altice to continue offering the Showtime’s digital streaming service to its broadband customers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Also Read: CBS Stations Go Dark on AT&T U-verse and DirecTV, Net Warns Blackout 'Could Last a Long Time' “We are pleased to strike a fair marketplace deal with Altice for CBS, Showtime, CBS Sports Network, Pop TV and Smithsonian Channel well in advance of our expiration and without any disruption to consumers. We appreciate the value Altice places on delivering America’s #1 network to its customers,” Ray Hopkins, president, Television Networks Distribution, CBS Corporation, said in a statement. “Altice USA is committed to delivering a wide array of high-quality content for our customers at competitive, fair rates, and this new agreement with CBS allows us to meet that objective,” Yossi Benchetrit, head of Programming for Altice USA, continued. “We are pleased to extend our longstanding partnership...