CBS has announced they’ll now be offering a commercial-free tier of their All Access video subscription service which includes every episode of every Big Brother season and lots more shows.
Big Brother fans know that All Access is the home for their Live Feeds along with missed episodes and none of that is changing, but this news provides subscribers another available viewing option.
The base tier for All Access will remain at $5.99/mo but a new no-commercials tier is now available for an extra four dollars a month ($9.99/mo). In addition to offering an option for removing all commercials CBS will be reducing the number of commercials in the basic, existing tier.
So that’s good news that nothing is being taken away and for those who don’t want to pay anything more than the previous price will still get the benefit of fewer commercials encroaching on their shows through the service. If you do want to completely zap commercials from all of the shows then after you login to your All Access account click the yellow “Upgrade to Commercial Free” button. Otherwise do nothing and your rate stays the same and your commercials will be reduced anyway.
CBS released a statement including these details:
With the commercial-free plan, subscribers will be able to watch CBS All Access’s on-demand library of more than 7,500 episodes, including full current seasons of primetime hits like BIG BROTHER, BLUE BLOODS, MADAM SECRETARY and THE ODD COUPLE among many others, as well as late night, daytime and news programming, all without commercials.
CBS All Access’s upcoming original series, including the next chapter of the legendary “Star Trek” TV franchise, STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, a spinoff of “The Good Wife” and a new digital edition of “Big Brother” will also be available commercial-free under the $9.99/month plan.
CBS again references the upcoming online-only version of Big Brother for this Fall (2016) which has still not been titled even though it’s probably starting in about a month. I’ve asked for details on the note here that it’s included in the commercial-free plan which I’d also expect for the basic tier plan since the Feeds have never had commercials. (BB1 had AOL ads around the viewer if I recall correctly) If I get any more info on that I’ll pass it along.
Update: CBS just announced Big Brother Over The Top starts Sept 28, 2016.
Since I mostly watch the Feeds on my account this hasn’t been much of an issue for me, but for those who spend more time in the episodes archive (even for shows other than Big Brother) I’d be interested in hearing if you think it’s worth the extra $4/mo to the next tier.