It’s Paramount+ launch day, so fair warning: Get ready for a ridiculous number of mountain puns to start filling up your social-media feeds. (And you thought last summer’s Peacock puns were awful!) This week’s Buffering is a slimmed-down affair, as I’ve spent most of my week working on a curtain-raiser for today’s Paramount+ premiere. You can find highlights from the story (and a link to the full report) straight ahead, plus one last remembrance of CBS All Access. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready to cry my eyes out over the Real World reunion. –Joe Adalian

Reach Joe on Twitter @tvmojoe or email buffering@vulture.com.

As readers of this newsletter know, I’m a big Pluto proponent. Even before ViacomCBS snapped up the free streamer in 2019, I was mightily impressed with how well the platform executed its idea of recreating the linear-TV experience for streaming. Simply put, it just works: a couple clicks and you’re scrolling through dozens of channels the same way you’d browse an onscreen cable guide (only faster than most cable systems!). Plus, programming on the service is diverse and well-curated, with something for every kind of viewer. So when ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish last fall said he was tapping Pluto co-founder Tom Ryan to head up his streaming business and take over the revamp of CBS All Access, I took it as a strong signal the company was (finally) getting serious about putting up a real fight in the streaming wars. Last week’s presentation to investors underscored that my first impression was right.

Of course, it isn’t as if ViacomCBS has much of a choice. Its CBS broadcast network is still drawing relatively big crowds with middle America content, and it can point to some success in cable with titles such as Yellowstone, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and probably a couple other reality shows on MTV I’ve never heard of. But the resounding success of Disney+ has shown that legacy-media companies are indeed capable of taking the fight to the Netflixes and Prime Videos of the world, and the continued collapse of linear ratings has made it clear big companies don’t have much time left to figure out how to survive the shift to streaming.

Ahead of today’s Paramount+ premiere, I spent a half-hour on the phone talking to Ryan about his plans for the service, what it’s like going from a start-up to a giant conglomerate and how he sees Pluto playing a key role in the growth of Paramount+.  He is very clearly not lowering expectations for the remade service, perhaps because he knows the platform needs to become essential to audience if it going to succeed. “You’re looking to be one of that handful of apps that people use religiously,” he told me, adding he is confident “Paramount+ can be one of them.” You can read my full report now at Vulture.

Pour One Out for CBS All Access

Before it fades into the past, I think it’s worth giving props to the little streamer that could. While Hulu rightfully gets a lot of credit for dragging broadcast networks into the streaming age — putting reruns online the day after they aired on TV was a big deal not that long ago — CBS All Access did something arguably even bigger. Long before Bob Iger dazzled with Disney+, CBS execs decided it was important for the Eye network to have its own direct-to-consumer relationship, rather than pussyfoot around by being part of some Soviet-style streaming collective. (In case you’re not aware, ABC, NBC, and Fox were all early investors in Hulu, which is why it was able to score those next-day reruns.)

CBS execs were clearly ahead of the curve in realizing they needed to be able to control their own destiny when it came to streaming. Look at what its rivals ultimately did. Disney not only launched Disney+, it bought out its partners and now has full control of Hulu (where content from ABC, Freeform, and FX lives). Meanwhile, NBC last year launched Peacock, and Fox took over Tubi. While those two networks still put their shows on Hulu, when Peacock and Tubi get big enough, it’s quite possible NBC and Fox will follow the path blazed by CBS Access and make their reruns available only on their own platforms, too.

Still, CBS paid a price for going it alone. Hulu has proven to be a great way for linear networks to get their shows in front of younger, streaming-centric eyeballs during the regular TV season. Fox’s 9-1-1,for example, gets a very nice bump from its Hulu plays, and advertising revenue from Hulu has grown exponentially over the past decade. CBS still benefits from streaming when its shows hit Netflix, of course, and some — like Criminal Minds — have become huge hits there. But despite a few great originals (The Good Fight, the Star Trek spin-offs), All Access just didn’t break through. The Eye’s insistence on making consumers pay $6 per month, with ads, for such relatively little content never allowed the service to become anything more than a successful niche player. We will soon see if Paramount+, with its dramatically expanded offering, proves more of a lure to consumers. But if it does, remember that CBS All Access laid the groundwork.