CBS (CBS-A), understanding that people on the Internet are increasingly moving toward consuming media on the web sites they want to, has responded by comitting to making its content available across 400 sites by the end of summer. The network already has extended their video content to 24 sites.
Concerning reaching viewers, CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith said, "CBS is all about open, nonexclusive partnerships. Just CBS.com is not the answer." He knows the content needs to be sent to where the people are at, that's where Internet media consumption is going.
The company says that just from the syndication to the other 24 sites, unique users have increased from 21 million in May to 134 million today.
Another part of their strategy is the content is being customized to the demographic represented by the Website it's offered on. As a result, Websites are able to pick and choose what video clips to put on the site for their audience.
At this time the impact upon TV viewing isn't able to be measured because it's been going on for only a short time, but executives at the company say they're working on that at this time.
If I were them, I'd be experimenting with monetizing the clips and adding revenue that way, instead of just seeing if it's driving people to watch shows on TV a little more. In a little time they will in some way, as it's in the early stages of the project.
Either way, this will be a good marketing tool for the company, and keep their content continually in front of the eyes of online viewers.
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