US broadcaster, CBS, recently made available four full-length, commercial-free "encore" episodes of two of its sitcoms--"Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother"--on-demand free of charge on Yahoo! TV, the broadband TV service of Internet portal, Yahoo!. The episodes--which were broadcast on the CBS Television Network earlier this season--were offered under the brand "CBS Comedy Bowl" and were available from December 27th through the afternoon of January 2nd. This was the first time that Yahoo! has streamed episodes of a CBS series in their entirety. "We're always looking for ways to provide current and potential new viewers every possible opportunity to sample our series," Nancy Tellem, the president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, said in a prepared statement. "We want to be where the viewers are, and this exclusive partnership with Yahoo! gives us the chance to target an expanded online audience for 'Two and a Half Men' and 'How I Met Your Mother' at a time of the year when many potential viewers are home on vacation and surfing the Internet."
In the past few weeks, CBS has been involved in a number of deals that are resulting in its programming being distributed on non-linear/non-traditional platforms: among other things, it signed a deal with cable MSO Comcast to make available episodes from four of its primetime series--"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "NCIS," "Survivor," and "The Amazing Race"--on the latter's VOD service, Comcast On Demand; and signed deals with Verizon and Amp'd Mobile to offer content on their respective mobile TV services. In addition, CBS chairman, Leslie Moonves, told the Reuters news agency last month that the broadcaster is in discussions with Google relating to video search and to offering its content on-demand via the Web.
(Note: this article was published in the January 3rd issue of the InteractiveTV Today [itvt] email newsletter.)
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