Sign o’ the times

Published on April 14th, 2007

CBS will distribute its television programs more widely over the Internet, adding new deals with Joost, Microsoft’s MSN and AOL to existing agreements with Apple’s iTunes and Google’s YouTube.

Some of the content will be free to consumers and supported by advertising, although premium fee services, such as the purchase of episodes from iTunes Music Store, will remain in place. The expanded initiative, called the CBS Interactive Audience Network, was announced Thursday.

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Though John and Smartalix are the only two folks here who actually get paid to predict, it’s beginning to look to me that this really is going to be the Year of VOD, Video On Demand.

From DirecTV to Apple TV, Joost to the N-alliance [Cripes! NBC+NewsCorp], we’re going to have expanding choices and a bit of competition for our discretionary home entertainment bucks.

5 users responded in " Sign o’ the times "

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# 1 Jägermeister said, on April 14th, 2007 at 9:54 am

…this really is going to be the Year of VOD, Video On Demand.

Took the content providers a while to finally figure it out.

# 2 BubbaRay said, on April 14th, 2007 at 11:23 am

And CBS already has a deal with YouTube. Adios to the morons at Viacom.

http://www.youtube.com/press_room_entry?entry=iXG7e1g-BWI

# 3 TJGeezer said, on April 14th, 2007 at 2:33 pm

2 – BubbaRay – Yeah, and the smart music companies are finally moving away from their unending attacks on music enthusiasts, too.

May Vicom and the RIAA sit together in their shrinking empire, cursing the people who made them rich but stopped buying their CDs and spreading buzz about their miserable shows. The really creative people are going elsewhere anyway.

# 4 George of the city said, on April 14th, 2007 at 10:44 pm

I got rid of my cable TV three years ago. Maybe once a month I will watch some over the air channels. Otherwise every thing goes through the computer. Just got a 42″ lcd for the monitor. This is the future.

# 5 Podesta said, on April 15th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

I dunno. How big is the audience willing to sit through watching an hour of a television on their computer screen often? It is okay that programs will be offered online, but I think they will be either ignored or treated as supplemental.

I download Battlestar Galactica from iTunes because I don’t have cable TV. But, I would not be willing to watch it online with commercials. It is this willingness to pay for convenience and absence of ads that has made iTunes Store a success. The online television shows aren’t comparable. It is a catch-22, I suspect.

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