CBS launches a subscription service, like the cool kids are doing

By Katie Rife | October 16, 2014 | 5:13pm

Aux Features TV

CBS is launching its own subscription service, allowing America’s CSI addiction to escalate to dangerous levels. Called CBS All Access, the service will cost $5.99 a month and include a live stream of local CBS broadcasts, new shows the morning after they air, and, according to EW, ads (albeit fewer ads than on terrestrial TV broadcasts). CBS already comes free with cable or one of those digital antenna things, so the success of CBS All Access will likely ride on the binge-worthiness of its back catalog.

That back catalog includes approximately 6,500 episodes of CBS shows from The Andy Griffith Show onward, so you can finally catch up on all 3,652 side-splitting minutes of the multiple Emmy-award-winning series The Big Bang Theory. More relevant to The A.V. Club’s readership, the cord-cutting equivalent of your grandma joining Facebook will also include every episode of Twin Peaks, the various Star Trek franchises, and Cheers.