We heard this rumor about 10 days ago, and today NYT makes a brief mention of it in the story about YouTube-rival site being negotiated by media companies. What we heard, but have not been able to confirm fully: that Google is closing a deal with CBS that includes a purchase of CBS radio inventory and possibly some TV inventory for Google to resell. This is to be bundled with the CBS-YouTube deal. The idea is that once this deal gets sealed, Google/YouTube could work on a similar deal with Viacom/MTV.
What NYT reported today: The company is having separate negotiations with Google relating to a service it is introducing aimed at selling radio advertising…Google could buy a large amount of radio inventory in CBS Radio…amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars of guaranteed revenue for CBS.
We’re on it and will report more as we get it.