For some sites, garnering these higher CPMs is nothing new—and to be clear, the quality of the content (and the site) determines whether they get the higher rates. But the fact that prime-time staples like The Simpsons and CSI are getting better CPMs online than on air is worth looking into. Content providers (and advertisers themselves) have long justified sky-high rates for prime-time TV ads, on the basis that such ads deliver unparalleled reach and branding power. TV ads still beat online video ads in terms of reach—just over 7.5 million unique viewers live streamed CBS’ NCAA championship game, for example, compared to the 17.6 million that tuned in on-air—but what about user engagement?

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That’s where the shift in perception—at least from an advertiser standpoint—seems to be taking place. “The reason people are paying such a high premium for these ads on the Internet is they do have a captive audience,” David Poltrack, CBS’ chief research officer, told Bloomberg. “You know you have eyes on the screen.”

Sites like TV.com and Hulu also tend to show fewer commercials per episode, which reduces ad clutter, but caps the amount of revenue they’re able to generate. So, plagued with less inventory (and smaller audiences), content providers are still struggling with the overall shift in viewership from TV to the web—since even with the higher CPMs, the revenue they generate from online content isn’t enough to replace what they’ve traditionally brought in from TV.