Can I Watch Cbs All Access on My Tv

Editors' Annotation: CBS All Admission has now become Paramount+. For the full details on that service, bank check out our review.

Ane increasingly popular trend among traditional broadcast channels is to sequester content for their own, defended video streaming services at the expense of content aggregators like Hulu and Netflix. CBS All Access is one such instance. In addition to hosting a vast backlog of CBS shows, it's the only way to watch original series such every bit Star Expedition: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, The Proficient Fight, and The Twilight Zone in the US as they air. The service also includes alive sports streams and local news coverage. CBS All Access may not offer enough to exist mandatory for general audiences, but for fans of specific CBS shows, the monthly cost is likely palatable.

The Best of ViacomCBS

With a subscription to CBS All Access, you can watch tons of past and current shows from the extensive CBS catalog on-demand, as well every bit some live content from CBS news channels. You besides get programming from other ViacomCBS networks, including BET, Comedy Key, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Smithsonian Channel. Nigh TV watchers should discover at to the lowest degree something worth watching, though over again, simply passing this examination may not be enough to warrant paying yet some other monthly subscription. Go along in mind that CBS All Access will go Paramount+ in March. In addition to the proper name modify, this move will considerably expand the bachelor library of streaming titles on the service.

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Amid the shows in CBS All Access's on-demand streaming library are dramas such as NCIS (in all its versions), Blue Bloods, and Elementary. If y'all enjoy the news, catch sixty Minutes, CBS Evening News, or Confront the Nation. Comedy offerings include The Large Bang Theory, Man with a Plan, and Immature Sheldon. You lot can fifty-fifty spotter classic shows such equally Frasier, the original Hawaii v-0, the original The Twilight Zone, and all the old Star Expedition series. CBS's new shows, including the rebooted Magnum P.I. and FBI, are likewise available. Many (simply non all) current shows offer both back catalogs of shows and recent episodes presently after they air.

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Of the other channels on the service, Nickelodeon (Blue'due south Clues, Drake and Josh, iCarly, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Manus Patrol, and Spongebob Squarepants) and Comedy Central (Key and Peele, Nathan for You, Reno 911!, and various one-act specials) are probable the most popular. The Smithsonian channel brings documentary and nature content to the service, simply CuriosityStream is a better bet for documentary fans and discovery+'s collection of BBC's Planet World serial is unmatched.

Many video streaming services stake their reputations on the quality of their original content, but CBS All Access falters in that regard. Its highest-caliber shows are Star Expedition: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, The Practiced Fight, and The Twilight Zone. Other originals include Coyote, No Activity, Strange Affections, Tell Me a Story, and The Stand. Star Expedition: Strange New Worlds and The Man Who Fell to Earth are upcoming originals. The event with CBS's originals is less the quality of the shows than the quantity.

Netflix's Bojack Horseman, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Crown, The Witcher, Stranger Things, and Mindhunters are simply a minor portion of its library of originals. Amazon Prime number's originals lineup includes Bosch, The Boys, The 1000 Bout, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, Patriot, and Undone. HBO Max is no stranger to quality originals either, with ongoing shows, such as Large Little Lies, Euphoria, Westworld, and Succession. The quantity of CBS'due south original shows is more in line with Apple Boob tube+, though I imagine both services will aggrandize considerably going forward. Still, it's worth noting that while merely the aforementioned titles have the distinction of CBS All Access Originals, well-nigh of CBS'due south electric current lineup of broadcast programming is exclusive to CBS All Access for streaming.

As of this writing, the CBS All Access's Movies section includes shut to 50 titles. The size of the libraryis disappointing compared with the vast libraries of HBO Max, Starz, and Showtime. Amazon Prime number Video and Netflix, which offer the best flick library of any streaming service, have significantly more cinematic content. In other words, if you savour watching films, CBS All Access is not the service for you.

Cinephiles should bank check out our roundup of the all-time picture show streaming services for options such equally Mubi and The Criterion Channel.

CBS All Admission for Streaming Sports

CBS All Access does offer some sports content via its live TV component, but notably less than near of the other entries in our roundup of the all-time sports streaming services. For case, you can sentry any live NFL games that air on CBS in your marketplace, the NCAA March Madness Tournament, select PGA Tour events, and SEC Football. Nevertheless, CBS All Admission lacks the top-end features of competing services, such every bit DVR capabilities and the option to restart streams from the beginning of the broadcast. And other entries in our roundup of the best NFL streaming services let you watch more football game games.

If you primarily want to watch sports, you should check out fuboTV. This tiptop-notch service has ninety+ channels of domestic and international sports content—including CBS Sports—as well as fantabulous DVR functionality. YouTube Television receiver and Hulu are also solid options for streaming sports, with broad channel lineups covering the major United states sports leagues.

How Much Does CBS All Access Price?

The base CBS All Access program costs $five.99 per month, but to get rid of commercials, you need to pay for the $ix.99-per-month, commercial-complimentary version. This higher-priced tier doesn't exempt you from advertisements while watching live Television nor does it cutting out the and then-called promotional messaging that accompanies select programming. However, it does enable you to download titles for offline viewing. We do not yet know how the transition to Paramount+ will affect these prices.

CBS All Access's annual plan reduces the payment pain a bit. The express-commercial plan costs $59.99 per year, while the commercial-gratis version runs you $99.99. Continue in heed that to switch from an annual plan to a monthly 1, you first have to cancel your current subscription.

There'south besides an option to pay for a Get-go improver, which includes all of the goggle box and movie content from its own streaming service. However, this is the but add-on option available at this time and it can but be used with monthly subscription plans. For the limited commercial plan, CBS All Access and the Offset Add together-On costs $14.99 per calendar month. The commercial free-version goes for a hefty $18.99 per month. Showtime by itself costs $x.99 per calendar month, so the combined plan offers a savings of a few dollars per month.

If you ever go tired of the service, take a look at our guide on how to cancel CBS All Admission.

For comparison, Netflix starts at $8.99 per month and Amazon Prime Video charges $viii.99 per calendar month. Hulu's advertising-supported tier simply costs $5.99 per calendar month. HBO Max and Starz cost $14.99 and $eight.99 per month, respectively. Disney+ is $six.99 per calendar month and Apple Idiot box+ costs just $four.99 per calendar month.

CBS All Access works in a web browser on desktops and there'due south a standalone CBS app on Windows 10. Information technology offers apps for both Android and iOS, in addition to Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Burn down TV devices. CBS All Access besides supports the Xbox One and PlayStation four consoles. I tested out the experience using a complimentary press account on a Windows 10 PC and a Google Pixel 3 running Android 11.

Functional Design

CBS All Access'south spider web interface features a sleek black-and-white expect. Across the pinnacle, there's a simplified navigation menu with the Shows, Total Episodes, and Live Boob tube options. Schedules, Movies, CBS Sports, and CBS News now alive under a card denoted by a horizontal ellipsis. Additionally, there's a search bar and an icon for accessing contour settings to the right side.

From the profile section, y'all can edit all of your contact information or opt in to e-mail notifications. There is not an choice to add together other viewing profiles, as with Hulu or Netflix. While the assistance portal, which is substantially just a collection of FAQs nearly the service, isn't very intuitive, the information is useful.

If you click on the Shows item, you see a list of pop CBS Shows by default. Click on any of the content headers, including Originals, Drama, Reality, Classics, and Specials to filter the listing farther. Under the Live Television section, I had four options in my testing, CBS (Local Station), CBS (24/7 News), CBS SportsHQ, and ET Live. Your location and local cable market may touch which channel options y'all see. These local channels are available in around 200 dissimilar markets, and then if you live in a reasonably metropolitan area, you should have access. The Schedule section now looks much cleaner, with big thumbnails organized in a vertically scrolling list.

CBS All Admission on Mobile

The CBS Mobile app launches quickly, but, oddly, it doesn't prompt you to log in when information technology starts upward. You sign in or sign up for a new account by swiping from the left to open the subconscious carte. Much like the meridian navigation bar from the spider web interface, this menu includes options for Shows, Live Television receiver, Movies, Schedule, Shop, and Settings. I understand why CBS bundles the Store (from which you tin buy Apparel, DVDs, and other show-related gifts) into the app, but it still seems out of place for what is primarily a video streaming app.

The mobile experience looks sleek, with vivid bluish accents and a blackness background. In the superlative correct, there'south a search bar for finding content. In the settings, you can adjust content downloading options and change the video streaming quality. The department also includes a helpful graph of the storage distribution on the device, including how much is taken upward past CBS content and how much space remains. The app lags slightly when opening detail pages for each show, but the actual streaming experience is solid.

CBS All Access's Android app and iOS apps allow you to download episodes for offline viewing, a adequacy shared with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and near others. CBS's implementation works similarly to others: Just hitting the Download icon next to any episode. Not all of its network shows support offline downloads at the time of publishing, though most of the networks' original shows are eligible. Cheque out the list of current CBS titles available for offline viewing. Subscribers tin can download up to 25 videos at any one time and continue the same video on upward to five devices. CBS All Access will delete videos 30 days after you download them or 48 hours from later on you start playback.

Streaming Feel

CBS All Access account supports two concurrent streams per account, which is below average for the category. BritBox and discovery+ respectively support five and iv simultaneous streams per business relationship.

CBS All Access doesn't measure up to the technical prowess of other veterans in the streaming service manufacture. For example, the maximum streaming resolution is express to 1080p. Apple tree Tv set+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and now, fifty-fifty Hulu, offering 4K content. CBS All Admission does support 5.i environs audio for certain movies, simply others, such as Apple tree Boob tube+ and Disney+, support HDR, besides as the Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision standards.

I didn't encounter any functioning issues when watching already-aired shows or the live content from the web interface or on mobile. Streams of CBS's Face the Nation and an episode of the new The Twilight Zone series played without whatever complications. The streaming quality ramped upwardly to the highest resolution quickly and didn't lag out at any point over my home Ethernet and Wi-Fi (200Mbps download) connections. For reference, CBS All Admission only requires a minimum bandwidth of 800Kbps.

Accessibility and Parental Controls

CBS All Admission's closed captioning (CC) works well and there are enough of customization options available on the web interface. I appreciate that these settings are directly attainable from the playback screen. Acorn TV also puts these controls on the now playing screen.

CBS All Admission now offers Audio Descriptions for about 20 of its shows, which improves the service'south accessibility. Sound Descriptions are audible narrations of on-screen events that may not be discernible from dialogue alone. Disney+, Netflix, and Prime Video are among those services that offer content with this feature.

CBS All Access Closed Caption settings on mobile

CBS All Access now offers parental controls in the account settings, joining Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Netflix, and Showtime. These settings allow y'all to lock potentially inappropriate content behind a 4-digit code. CBS separates restrictions into four categories: All Kids (Television-Y, Grand, Boob tube-G), Older Kids (TV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV, PG, and TV-PG), Teens (PG-13 and Idiot box-14), and Adult (R, Telly-MA, NC-17, UR, and NR). You can require account users to provide the PIN to spotter live TV content on CBS All Access, too. Note that since CBS All Access does not support multiple business relationship profiles, these settings apply beyond all account users. Netflix's implementation is better: you either crave users to enter a PIN for content above a certain rating or restrict content past rating for each profile.

CBS All Access and VPN

You lot should be using a virtual individual network (VPN) to secure your privacy whenever you access the internet. I potential effect, however, is with video streaming services, which may block the use of VPNs due to content licensing restrictions or other geographic-based policies. CBS All Admission'south programming, for instance, is only bachelor for residents in Australia, Canada, and US. In effect, blocking VPNs and proxies prevents people in other countries from spoofing their location to stream its region-locked shows.

I tried streaming CBS All Admission content later on connecting to a United states-based Mullvad VPN server and experienced no playback issues on the web or mobile app. I did accept to disable my content blocker on the web, though.

Even if yous discover a VPN that works with your video streaming services, at that place is no guarantee that information technology will continue to piece of work. Video streaming services have gotten better at detecting and thwarting the tactics VPN providers utilize to featherbed these policies.

Access Adds Up

As with all video streaming services, the value of CBS All Access depends on how much you lot use it and how much it saves you from spending elsewhere. Given its relatively narrow restriction to CBS content, it'southward a tougher sell than services with broader offerings. Still, CBS All Admission hosts a huge catalog of on-demand content, is available across multiple platforms, and even throws live NFL games and news programming into the mix. If you want to watch a few electric current CBS shows, binge on its vast content archives, or enjoy the occasional NFL game, then subscribing makes financial sense. If you want to watch CBS originals as they air, such as Star Expedition: Picard or The Good Fight, y'all don't take a option, even if the staggered release cycle is less economical for cord-cutters.

Netflix is our Editors' Pick winner for on-need services because of its expansive library of TV shows and movies. Hulu + Alive TV and YouTube Tv also earn Editors' Option ratings. Hulu is an excellent value for its combination of on-demand and live streaming options, while YouTube Television receiver'due south slick apps and first-class channel lineup impress united states of america.

CBS All Admission

Cons

The Bottom Line

CBS All Access is mandatory for those who want to watch CBS originals every bit they air, but its large itemize of past and current shows may not be enough to concenter anyone else.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/cbs-all-access