CBS O&O’s Join The Widget Revolution
March 17th, 2008 — admin
CBS owned-and-operated television stations have taken the wraps off of their rumored “CBS Local Ad Network,” which offers selected region-focused blogs the opportunity to pull in extra cash by embedding a local CBS news widget onto their site.
On Monday, the program launched in the five largest CBS regional markets: Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, Denver, and Chicago. The program will roll out in other markets serviced by CBS O&O stations within weeks.
Blogs that are approved by their respective local CBS stations will be offered up several different widgets they can embed into their site. The widgets typically include a small window of links to stories and/or video, with an accompanying ad.
While this is a new idea for local TV stations, it’s an idea that other news organizations have experimented with in recent months. Pulse360 (which also helps administer this program) is currently offering similar widgets for MSNBC politics and NBC’s “The Today Show.”
It’s not clear what the blogs participating in the CBS Local Ad Network can expect to generate in new revenue. But on the two participating sites I was able to check, the widget had a modest news window attached to a skyscraper ad. It’s a large footprint commitment for blogs, and my hunch is that some of the most successful ones won’t have the extra space to spare. While it appears that you can embed a smaller widget (with a smaller embedded ad), the result is still a healthy commitment from the blogger.
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