YouTube Starts Running Full Length CBS Shows
YouTube, hoping to counter the competition from sites like the NBC/News Corp. JV Hulu, has started running full-length episodes of CBS (NYSE: CBS) programming. Executives at the Google-owned video site told Reuters that CBS would handle ad sales for its shows and share the revenue with YouTube. The breakdown of the split wasn’t disclosed. YouTube also indicated that a similar deal was in the works with “another major network.” In the meantime, CBS does not have a programming deal with Hulu, although the video site does direct users who search for that network’s shows back to the CBS site.
CBS has one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube, with 83,000 users signed up. The channel debuted two years ago and has recorded 4.2 million views. There are only four CBS shows currently available in the full-episode mode on YouYube—Beverly Hills 90210, StarTrek: The Original Series, The Young and the Restless and MacGyver.
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Comments (3)
Oct 10, 2008 2:51 PM
Erratic (v); Sumner Redstone’s strategy of suing google on the one hand and relying on them on the other. I guess it comes with age- tired old brands (&man;)
Oct 11, 2008 7:25 PM
Makes a lot of sense for CBS to do this through YouTube. It lets CBS focus on what they’re good at (making TV shows), and leaves the hosting and operation of the web site with people who know what they are doing.
However, I question how smart it is to let CBS do the ad selling. In my experience working with newspapers, the ad sales team treats the online audience as a afterthought. Better to let the guys at Google handle all online ads.
Oct 13, 2008 6:15 AM
Vast experience of multi-platform ad sales has revealed that it is far, far better to let the content owners do the selling. Much better yield, a better and more focused sales proposition.