AT&T and CBS ink new content agreements

AT&T (NYSE: T) on Friday renewed its content carriage agreement with CBS, a deal that includes retransmission consent for CBS-owned TV stations and carriage of Showtime, The Smithsonian Channel and The CBS Sports Network.

Although neither AT&T nor CBS would not disclose the terms of the new deal, a FierceCable report revealed that CBS executives have previously said it wants to generate $1 billion in retransmission-consent revenue annually by collecting monthly fees of 50 cents per subscriber from cable and satellite TV providers.

"We're proud to have reached agreements to continue to offer CBS owned stations and cable channels to our subscribers," said Jeff Weber, President of Content and Advertising Services, AT&T Home Solutions. "Our agreements with CBS continue to bring our customers more value with high-quality and compelling content."

At a time when AT&T's U-verse video and broadband services continue to be a main revenue driver in the telco's wireline portfolio, being able to renew agreements with major content holders like CBS is a key element as they battle cable operators for more subscriber dollars.

In addition to CBS, AT&T signed a carriage agreement with AMC, meaning the service provider will continue to be able to offer IFC, Sundance and WE tv content to its U-verse TV subscriber base in July.

Having a wide range of content to deliver to its U-verse video customer base has been working well for the telco. During the second quarter, AT&T added 155,000 new U-verse TV subscribers and 553,000 U-verse broadband subscribers, helping to offset the 96,000 DSL subscribers it lost.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
AT&T's Q2 wireline growth driven by U-verse, next-gen business services
AT&T, AMC establish carriage agreement
AT&T, CWA hammer out tentative wireline labor agreements
Report calls AT&T, Verizon top U.S. 'investment heroes'
AT&T, IBEW agree on 1-year contract extension, CWA negotiations ongoing