A couple of weeks after ABC announced plans to open up and allow embedding of its clips, CBS is opening up, too.
CBS has long adopted an open strategy, albeit selectively. Previously, by launching the CBS Interactive Network (CBSIN), the Tiffany Network effectively said that its content can exist on non-CBS sites. But just because it gave that right to some pre-selected sites, it did not mean that anyone could grab a clip and embed it where they wanted to. Unless, of course, you managed to snag the clip off YouTube, in which case CBS did not even get any credit unless it was actually from CBS’ page on YouTube, something that was not always the case.
Revenue is a bit of a moot point right now, it’s all about experimentation and building an audience. CBS was doing that by virtue of the audience network. By launching the CBSIN, CBS’ reach increased to over 100M uniques; it then bought CNET, propelling it to a Top 10 property. I think CBS is now looking at the revenue variable in the equation. By enabling embeds, this begs the question: how will CBS monetize its clips?
Pre-rolls? I hope not. I throw my laptop out of my office window when a pre-roll loads… but overlays right now are misses and by embedding clips, display ads become somewhat moot (not always, just sometimes).
Of course, it could very well be that revenue will remain moot, either way, by allowing clips to become embeddable, CBS is saying a few things.
What are those things? Check in tomorrow. Yes, I am imposing a new word count limit on my entries.
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