Followers of the Tanner Friedman Blog know that I have beaten CBS up for their safe play with their Evening TV news broadcast. Now, though, I must give credit where credit is due.
The network has proven that they “get it” when it comes to putting sports online. CBS and the NCAA have made every game of the college basketball championship tournament on the Web – to 200 sites, up from 56 last year – to complement the TV package. The move is paying off – literally. Business Week reports online ads will bring CBS $23 million this year, up from $10 million last year. That’s a small percentage of the $545 million in revenue CBS will receive during the tournament’s run. But, it’s growing and, importantly, CBS has embraced online broadcasting to give fans the games they want to see, when they want to see them. Yes – that’s customer service. It’s something new for the old networks.
We can’t say it often enough… it’s a multiplatform world. So, we’ll continue to recognize those are are delivering content the way consumers want it.
Ironically, CBS News and Sports are both overseen by the same executive. Hopefully, this success in sports will lead to new innovation in news content delivery.