CBS's Internet strategy
The Washington Post has an interesting article today on Internet ads with respect to videos: CBS's live coverage of NCAA's March Madness. It says that from 2003 to 2005, CBS showed March Madness coverage on the Internet on a subscription basis with prices ranging from $10-$20 for the whole tournament. In 2006, they showed it for free but required viewers to register. They got 1.3 million registered viewers and $4M in ads. This year, CBS dropped the registration requirement and made it available from its online rival ESPN.com and other websites. They got over 4.7 million viewers and $23M in ads.
Very interesting. It's still hard for me to sometimes wrap my head around this give-it-away-for-free-and-make-more-money concept.
Susan Ee
