CBS Experiments With Streaming Deals

CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said the broadcaster is experimenting with new business models for serialized dramas like apocalyptic summer hit "Under the Dome" and the coming thriller "Hostages," banking on deals with streaming-video sites like Netflix and Amazon to help make them profitable.

Moonves said the company has renewed "Under the Dome," a show about a small town trapped inside an invisible bubble, for a second 13-episode season. Amazon acquired rights to stream the show four days after episodes air on the CBS network. The June 24 premiere of the series on CBS was watched by 13.53 million viewers—a big number for summer, which was long seen as a time for lower budget shows, reality series and reruns. (Including seven days of DVR, on-demand and online viewing, viewership was 20 million.) Moonves acknowledged that increasingly ambitious cable network programming and digital TV options are affecting the broadcast model, but struck a note of optimism about the broadcast-TV industry's future. "The model has never been dead," he said. "It's just evolving."