Posted by ChiTownRadio.com on May 06, 2008 at 15:09:25:
CBS Adds Visual Components To Online Player
Originally Posted On May 6, 2008 9:20 AM ET
By Paul Heine
Pledging to "redefine the next generation Internet radio experience," CBS Radio offered a glimpse of its new Web radio player during a multimedia presentation for advertisers Monday evening (May 5) in New York. Expected to launch next month in tandem with the broadcaster's new partnership with AOL Radio, the player adds visual components to audio streaming with what the company calls thousands of "integrated content slides" that represent the station's audio programming.
One of four CBS execs to take the stage at the Nokia Theater off New York's Times Square in the third such road show for clients this spring, president of digital media and integrated marketing David Goodman compared the slides to VH1's pop-up videos. A contextual banner ad and a menu of links related to the audio programming will also be included in the player.
Branded as play.it, the media player will afford entry to all of the company's 140 terrestrial radio stations, roughly 25 Internet-only streams and AOL's entire portfolio of Internet stations. Stations will be sortable by format or city.
"When we launch in June, CBS Radio will be the No. 1 Internet radio company in the world," Goodman said.
He touted the benefits of the newly christened CBS Radio Digital Network, telling advertisers it offers "a huge network of connected listeners that we can move around. Anyone in any place at anytime can listen to any of our stations."
To provide advertisers with greater flexibility, promotions previously confined to local audiences could be pushed to other compatible station sites throughout the network. Conversely, the company's TargetSpot online ad placement service enables "narrowcasting to the zip code," Goodman said.
CBS says the new player will also allow consumers to create their own personalized Internet stations by dragging and dropping artist names on their computer screens. The closer to the center of the screen the artist is placed, "the more the station reflects the vibe of the artist," Goodman said. Incorporating a recommendation engine, the player also allows users to add imaging and other non-music elements and to publish their personalized stations to their MySpace and Facebook pages.
CBS Corp. president/CEO Les Moonves called the radio division "the most under-estimated part" of the company and praised CBS Radio president and CEO Dan Mason for putting "the great DNA of CBS Corp. back into CBS Radio."
CBS is betting new digital investments will bring it a bigger slice of the local online ad revenue market, forecast to grow to $12.6 billion this year. To lure advertisers, CBS Radio head of sales Michael Weiss dangled a carrot: a new package called I-5 that offers advertisers 5% of the company's digital ad inventory, including pre-rolls, in-stream audio, banners, promotions and integrated content slides. Weiss said the package would enable advertisers to reach the company's entire Internet radio platform -- or confine their buys exclusively to the New York market.