What’s up with that? I added the channel and browsed through it, but all that’s on it are 1-2 minute “clips” from CBS shows. I don’t understand the point of this. Can someone explain?
It establishes a presence on Roku without competing against the broadcast and cable channels that carry CBS.
Unless they’ve changed it recently, the Syfy Roku channel is the same way. I find it useless and thus don’t use it. Looks like I don’t need to install the CBS one.
I had an unofficial Plex CBS channel that I access by my Roku for CBS that has a bunch of full-length shows.
Thanks. For a minute, I was wondering what was up, but then I remembered this.
That said, I don’t get why the free over-the-air channels aren’t better represented with those types of offerings. Cable has to support cable pricing. But over-the-air? They could actually get by with charging money.
The Fox app is particularly annoying. Not only do you have to authorize it with your cable provider (WHY? It’s a broadcast station!!!) but the authorization only seems to last a week or two and then you have to go authorize it again! What bullshit, and annoying when you keep your computer in a different room than the Roku. At least you get full eps of just about everything after that, though.
You do get a very limited selection without authorizing, but it’s mostly clips and stuff again.
The obvious answer to the OP: CBS started their own streaming service.
So the point is to get you to sign up for their service.
What if you don’t have a cable provider?
I assumed the Roku channel WAS the access to the CBS streaming service.
I went to that link but I can’t see how much it costs. Anyone know? I see that I can try one week for free, but how much is it to subscribe. Don’t plan to, but I’d like to know.
It’s $5.99 a month. However, Roku is not yet supported (nor are any other set-top devices or smart TVs; it’s strictly desktop/tablet/mobile for now).
I just checked, and it’s not even an unsupported app! I went to “All Plug-ins” and found CBS listed alphabetically.
Once installed, it lists a choice of:
Daytime
Prime Time
Late Night
Movies and Specials
The only show of theirs I watch is Craig Ferguson, and it’s right there in Late Night.
If you have a Roku, you really need to set up Plex.
I believe that’s the same full episodes and clips that are available for free streaming on the CBS website. If, like me, you’re mainly interested in the latest Survivor or Letterman episode, that Plex channel fits the bill perfectly.
I’m a little worried that CBS may pull the plug on it to drive traffic to their new pay service.
The beauty of Plex is that an app scrapes content from websites and puts the content into a clean, simple “10 foot” interface that can be readily controlled with a simple remote. As long as the CBS web sites exists, the app can exist. The problem is that the original app programmer is obligate to update it every time the network updates its web site.
So yes, it’s the same content presented in a different way.
Yes, but those changes have pretty much nerfed every other broadcast TV channel on Plex. A few are still offered on some platforms, but not on Roku. It seems the people who maintained them have stopped caring.
Unfortunately, the best use of Plex on Roku is to download those shows that are freely available on their sites as Bittorrented files.
Fortunately for me, I find that just using a computer is my preferred viewing experience.