CBS was able to almost double the mobile subscription revenue for its CBS All Access service with the premiere of “Star Trek: Discovery,” according to new data that app analytics specialist App Annie exclusively shared with Variety this week. Additionally, the number of downloads of the CBS mobile app grew by 2.5x following the premiere of the show.
CBS premiered “Star Trek: Discovery” both on broadcast TV as well as on its subscription streaming service CBS All Access on September 24. The first episode was free to watch for everyone; episode number two, which premiered on the same day, has only been available to CBS All Access subscribers.
To sweeten the deal, CBS has been giving All Access subscribers a 7-day free trial period. This means that anyone who signed up on September 24, and decided to stick around, saw their credit card charged on October 1. That day, the CBS app on iOS and Android did indeed see a revenue hike of 1.8x, compared to the average in-app revenue during the previous 30 days.
“We expect to see an elevated level of daily revenue for the next week following the prior week’s elevated level of downloads,” the company said in its report.
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However, this doesn’t mean that CBS is raking in Netflix-style money with the show just yet. App Annie estimated that the combined iOS and Android revenue for the CBS app was “well over $60,000 in the US” on October 1. This number doesn’t include any sign-ups that might have happened on CBS’ website or through connected devices.
CBS itself hasn’t released any concrete numbers on the revenue impact of “Star Trek: Discovery.” The broadcaster did share Tuesday that subscriber growth has been up more than 200 percent year-over-year since the debut of the show.
