CBS All Access was unavailable for much of the country Monday evening due to an issue with a fiber optic Internet service, according to a source.
Problems with the service first began around 9 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. Pacific Time) when customers reported issues accessing both on-demand content and live streams through the ViacomCBS-owned premium streaming service.
An error message on the CBS All Access website said the service was “temporarily unavailable” because of “site issues.” A similar message on the CBS website warned of a “server error” when The Desk attempted to access it late Monday evening.
A source familiar with the problem told The Desk a service disruption involving fiber Internet company Zayo Group is likely the culprit behind the outage; the same service disruption is causing issues for Verizon Wireless customers in several states.
The issue was resolved around 1 a.m. Tuesday Eastern Time (10 p.m. Monday Pacific Time), according to a tweet. Customers accessing CBS All Access and other CBS services through third parties like Amazon and Apple TV Plus were unaffected by the issue.
This is not the first time CBS All Access has suffered from an outage: In 2018, a disruption involving a “third party service provider” blocked customers from accessing dozens of live streams of CBS affiliates. The issue was resolved a short time later.
CBS All Access has seen an uptick in subscriptions over the last few weeks with the debut of “Star Trek: Picard,” which focuses on the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard during his retirement years. A new episode of the series is expected to land on the service this coming Wednesday.
The service costs $6 a month to view shows with advertisements and $10 a month to view shows without commercial interruptions.
