ViacomCBS will rebrand its CBS All Access streaming service as Paramount Plus, set to debut early next year with new, original shows.
The expanded streaming service has been in the works since February, when CEO Bob Bakish said ViacomCBS planned to add “substantial content” to CBS All Access by drawing from a number of its media platforms.
The new service will add shows from BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, other Paramount Pictures and ViacomCBS brands, in addition to what CBS All Access already offers.
CBS and Viacom joined forces last August, saying they could better compete as one in the increasingly competitive streaming environment.
CBS was one of the first media companies to launch its own streaming service. Its $6-a-month service CBS All Access includes original programming such as new “Star Trek” series and a revival of “The Twilight Zone.” The service also has old and current broadcast shows.
Paramount Plus enters an increasingly crowded field. Disney last year launched its $7-a-month Disney Plus service. This year, Comcast’s NBCUniversal launched Peacock, which has a free ad-supported tier. AT&T’s WarnerMedia debuted its $15 a month HBO Max service. Traditional media companies are all trying to lure viewers away from Netflix, Amazon as more people dump the cable TV subscriptions they had relied on.
New original shows for Paramount Plus will include “The Offer," a series about the making of “The Godfather"; a new “Behind the Music" series from MTV; a spy drama called “Lioness"; a revival of BET's comedy-drama “The Game"; and a true crime series called “The Real Criminal Minds."
Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday on Saturday, hitting the century mark some six decades after he sang and danced with Julie Andrews in “Mary Poppins” and starred in his self-titled sitcom.
“The funniest thing is, it’s not enough,” Van Dyke said in an interview with ABC News at his Malibu, California home. “A hundred years is not enough. You want to live more, which I plan to.”
As part of the celebration of Van Dyke's birthday this weekend, theaters around the country are showing a new documentary about his life, “Dick Van Dyke: 100th Celebration."
Van Dyke became one of the biggest actors of his era with “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” which ran from 1961-66 on CBS; appeared with Andrews as a chimney sweep with a Cockney accent in the 1964 Disney classic “Mary Poppins” and, in his 70s, played a physician-sleuth on “Diagnosis: Murder.”
Also a Broadway star, Van Dyke won a Tony Award for “Bye Bye Birdie” to go with a Grammy and four Primetime Emmys. In 1963, he starred in the film version of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
Just last year, he became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy, for a guest role on the soap “Days of Our Lives.”
In the 1970s, he found sobriety after battling alcoholism, and spoke out about it at a time when that was uncommon to do.
Now that he has hit triple digits, Van Dyke said he's gotten some perspective on how he used to play older characters.
“You know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous,” he told ABC News. "It's not really that way. I don't know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself."
He recently imparted wisdom about reaching the century mark in his book, “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life.” He credited his wife, 54-year-old makeup artist and producer Arlene Silver, with keeping him young.
“She gives me energy. She gives me humor, and all kinds of support,” he told ABC News.
Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up “the class clown” in Danville, Illinois, while admiring and imitating the silent film comedians.
He told ABC News he started acting when he was about 4 or 5 years old in a Christmas pageant. He said he was the baby Jesus.
“I made some kind of crack, I don't know what I said, but it broke the congregation up," he said. "And I liked the sound of that laughter.”
And what's hard about being 100?
“I miss movement,” he told ABC News. “I've got one game leg from I don't know what."
"I still try to dance,” he said with a laugh.
FILE - Dick Van Dyke poses with chimney sweeps during arrivals to the 40th anniversary and re-premiere of Mary Poppins at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004. (AP Photo/Ann Johansson, File)
FILE - Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews dancing in a scene from the Disney movie " Mary Poppins" in Hollywood, Calif. June 25, 1963. (AP Photo/Don Brinn, File)
FILE - Julie Andrews, left, is joined by presenter Dick Van Dyke after accepting the 43rd annual life achievement award at the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
FILE - This May 25, 1964 file photo shows Dick Van Dyke, left, and Mary Tyler Moore, co-stars of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" backstage at the Palladium with their Emmys for best actor and actress in a series at the Television Academy's 16th annual awards show, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - Dick Van Dyke accepts the award for outstanding guest performance in a daytime drama series for "Days of our Lives" during the 51st Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday, June 7, 2024, at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
