CBS? long-running reality game show, Big Brother, is pulling out all the stops to drum up ratings for its latest season, focusing on mobile to give fans access to exclusive content and live feeds on CBS All Access.

Big Brother, which is in its 17^th season and has been battling negative ratings and criticism in recent years, is doing everything possible to continue its upward trend since last season?s uptick. The reality show is leveraging CBS All Access and mobile to proceed in bringing back fans and ratings. 

"Viewers today expect the flexibility to be able to watch their favorite shows across multiple platforms," said Rob Gelick, senior vice president and general manager of Digital Platforms at CBS Interactive Entertainment. "With CBS All Access, we are able to give them the ability to watch CBS shows live or on-demand across multiple devices. 

"For Big Brother fans, the ability to tune in live to the show when they may be away from their TV screen is a great benefit and that is new to fans this year through CBS All Access," he said. "This flexibility, in addition to the Big Brother Live Feeds and the sheer breadth of CBS All Access's Big Brother on-demand library, every episode from every season ever, gives fans of the show an even more seamless experience than ever before.

"We have offered the Big Brother Live Feeds for multiple seasons as a standalone subscription service and we are very excited to bring it into the CBS All Access service this season. We have offered exclusive content for Live Feed subscribers in the past and will continue to do so through CBS All Access. For example, this is the first year where we have given subscribers a chance to meet the season's Houseguests before anyone else with the live-stream of their first interviews."

The reality show first aired in 2000 and has since produced 16 summer seasons. The show features several contestants living a house to compete for a $500,000 prize and avoid being evicted.

Big Brother is watching
Since the first season Big Brother has been known for its live feed cameras, in which fans can spy on contestants at any time of the day. These feeds are now being brought to CBS All Access subscribers and can be streamed on mobile devices through the All Access application.

CBS All Access is the network?s subscription based streaming service available on multiple mobile devices as well as Roku. Subscribers have access to the networks? current, classic and exclusive content through standalone streaming.

This is a huge step for the show, the feeds have been offered on a subscription basis since its second season, but offering the live footage on mobile increases the possibility of engagement. Fans can now access the feeds whenever and wherever they want to.

This is especially important as the feeds are live 24/7, and viewers will not be watching the entire time. This allows them access to the feed whenever the thought to watch occurs to them.

Subscribers had early knowledge of this year?s contestants with access to cast interviews through CBS All Access on July 16. Fans also have access to the house Photo Booth gallery, in which cast members frequently take pictures, but this year with themed directions. 

All this extra content comes with access to stream this year?s season of Big Brother, along with all episodes of past seasons.

Big Brother made the decision to extend Big Brother content across all platforms with good reason. Last year the season saw a significant positive viewership with millennials for its time slot but also 61 percent increase in traffic to Big Brother pages across all platforms.

Nearly 120 million video streams were watch by viewers across all digital channels.

All access to CBS
Live streams such as this and live events have proved highly beneficial for CBS All Access, with high engagement rates and subscriptions.

A CBS Interactive executive explained at Mobile Marketing Day 2015 that its CBS All Access on-demand service had one of its most profitable days due to live streaming this year's Grammy Awards (see more).

However, with standalone services on the rise, consumers now have the option to pick and choose which networks to subscribe too causing greater competition for these services.

Showtime is the most recent network to challenge CBS, HBO, Netflix and cable service providers with its new standalone streaming service through its mobile application (see more). 

"The Live Feed users are our Big Brother super fans, they are one of the most passionate groups of fans we have ever seen, so we are always looking to give them more access inside the Big Brother House and new ways to participate in the game through things like Impact Votes and more," Mr. Gelick said. "Our goal is to deliver a service that would make it easy for fans looking for more CBS content to get it in aggregate through one easy-to-use branded platform. 

"By bringing together live and on-demand programming across platforms, we are able to give our fans a greater level of flexibility in where and how they watch CBS shows," he said. "CBS All Access also enables us to provide a deeper library of content for fans to explore, which gives us an opportunity to introduce them to more CBS programming they may love."

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer