Film/TV

CBS has only a small footprint in the film industry, with its CBS Films production division, but the company is open to acquiring other small movie production companies to increase its film content, according to CEO Leslie Moonves. “I don’t know if I want to get a whole lot bigger,” he said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in Los Angeles Sept. 15. “I think with the track record of some of the movie studios, probably getting bigger would be a bad idea right now.” But he added: “Would we entertain buying other production companies that would enable us to produce more content? That would be a focus for us” because the international and domestic markets are strong and “we want to get on the field and do as many things as we can do.”

The CBS movie “Hell or High Water” is playing theatrically in the U.S. now as part of a distribution deal with Lionsgate and it’s been getting strong reviews from film critics. Up next from CBS Films is “Patriots Day,” scheduled for wide theatrical release early next year.

Asked yet again if CBS was open to once again merging with one-time parent company Viacom, Moonves told the conference that his company was “not in active discussions for anything like that.” He also said: “We are really happy with the hand we are playing. We’re doing extraordinarily well on our own with our own assets. We are never going to do something that is bad for the CBS shareholders or the employees.”

CBS has money on hand to invest in content and “if the right M&A opportunity came along,” he said. But “there’s been nothing there that’s been something that’s appealing to us,” he said. CBS, however, looks “at everything that’s out there and will continue to do that,” he said.

The company also remains open to deals with additional skinny over-the-top (OTT) bundles, including Hulu, he said. “We’re talking to everybody” and CBS has “had conversations with Hulu,” he said at the conference. “We just want to get paid the right price,” he said, adding: “I assume everybody putting out a bundle will want us on their service desperately because without CBS you ain’t got a real service.” He pointed to the fact that highly-viewed CBS programs include “The Big Bang Theory,” “NCIS,” the annual NCAA basketball tournament and “Thursday Night Football.”

The original programs that CBS will offer on its CBS All Access service, meanwhile, will be an “important part” of the expected growth of that service, he said. About one million people use CBS All Access now without any original programs, and he projected that will grow to 4 million subscribers by 2020, in addition to 4 million subscribers for its Showtime OTT service by that time.

One eagerly awaited exclusive CBS All Access program, however, has been delayed by a few months. CBS originally planned to air the first episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” in January, with subsequent episodes to air exclusively on All Access. But Moonves said the show has been delayed until May to give its producers more time that they asked for. He told the conference: “I’d rather it be a few months late and great than early and not great.” The planned “Good Wife” spinoff for All Access, however, will now debut earlier than expected, he said.

Moonves also discussed dynamic ad insertion, saying it’s still in its “early innings,” but is becoming “more and more important” and “advertisers are paying more and more attention it.”