This is part of why I believe CBS News lags behind its competitors. First, it is yet another rebrand in a seemingly endless string of rebrandings. Just this property alone has had three names in its short life. It launched in Nov. 2014 as "CBSN" before announcing in Sept. 2021 that the streamer would become simply "CBS News". Then in 2022, the Hollywood Reporter reported that "CBS News is rebooting its streaming service, overhauling its entire programming slate." Now, in 2024, comes another new name.
CBS News, sans 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning which are frozen in time, appears to take a flavor-of-the-month approach to everything else. It lacks consistency and a true ethos of what its products are supposed to be. Even the programming on "CBS News 24/7" seems to lack full commitment. The channel's newscast of record, "The Daily Report with John Dickerson" may be expanding to 90 minutes but is still only airing Monday through Thursday. I recognize Fridays are slow news days and viewership is light, but I believe you demonstrate commitment to the product by showing up five days a week.
CBS launched nearly five years before NBC's streaming product. Today, NBC News Now streams original day-and-date programming M-F from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Its signature newscast, Top Story with Tom Llamas, airs M-F. ABC's ABC News Live also streams its signature program, ABCNL Prime with Linsey Davis, five nights a week. This past September, ABC announced an expansion of live programming on the channel that also launched in 2018. Live programming only gets added so long as there is revenue to support the expansion. You'd think with such a huge headstart that CBS would be the leader in live programming. But it is not. I believe it is because CBS is constantly toiling with reboots and rebranding.