CBS said Thursday it will distribute its shows through a number of new Internet video outlets including AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh.
CBS claims it's now the "most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web." The network already has online distribution deals with Amazon, Apple and Yahoo!
What's this mean? You'll now be able to check out CSI, David Letterman, CBS News with Katie Couric and Survivor from the comfort of your desk at work. Uh, I mean, at home, of course. CBS says it'll all be free, but you'll have to sit through some ads.
"Today marks an important step in our strategy to distribute content broadly across the online interactive landscape on an open, non-exclusive basis," CBS CEO Leslie Moonves says in a statement Thursday.
Why do you care? CBS's announcement is further proof-of-concept for distributing high-quality video (not home-made YouTube stuff) on the Internet. The quality and content selection problems faced by Internet video today will eventually be solved. Big media deals like the one today will help speed the process.
A few key names jump out from the list of new CBS video distributors.
Comcast will carry the CBS stuff on its new Fancast.com video site, just announced yesterday.
The upstart video "space-shifting" company Sling Media says it will feature CBS content at a "forthcoming video destination" that it will launch this summer. The company is known for its "Slingbox" gadget, which "catches" cable TV content at home and "slings" it out to laptops or wireless devices via the Internet.
Joost, the new (and much-hyped) peer-to-peer (P2P) video site brought to you by Kazaa and Skype inventors Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, adds CBS to its quickly-growing content line-up. The service is still in beta.
