CBS to Google: We want YOUR audience!
CBS is on a tear, a who needs mainstream media tear that is.
Beauty is in the eye of the (future) beholder: "Last.fm is one of the most well-established, fastest-growing online community networks out there," according to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves.
Reuters news service apparently concurrs, assuring the world that:
Last.fm is an innovative site that has earned glowing praise for its system, which recommends songs by tracking listeners' music-playing habits and linking them to fans with similar tastes.
That and, most importantly for Moonves, "Their demographics also play perfectly to CBS' goal to attract younger viewers and listeners."
Who says CBS is a fuddy-duddy OLD media company! CBS certainly dispelled THAT unfounded rumor last week by "snapping up" the not quite CNBC Jim Cramer "Mad Money" competitor finanancial news as BIG entertainment "Wallstrip."
SEE: CBS vs. NBC: The REAL Wall Street (Wallstrip) story!
SO, what's the CBS deal?
CBS has been Google's biggest YouTube mainstream promoter, hopping on Google CEO's YouTube ship from the get go, as I reported and analyzed last fall when Google officialy took over the YouTube reigns.
I underscored in Google to TV networks: Believe in YouTube:
Google has already made its mark at YouTube, a PR mark. One week after officially taking over the YouTube reigns, Google is doing what it does best, spinning tales of Googley-and now YouTube-goodenss.
Google YouTube announced to the world: “After one month, CBS content among most viewed videos on YouTube, Nearly 30 Million Views Since Partnership Began”
What happened a month ago? Two things, just hours apart :
1) CBS and YouTube “strike strategic partnership,” 2) Google reported it is “to acquire” YouTube.
Moreover, I refuted the CBS-YouTube joint PR in Google’s fuzzy YouTube logic.
CBS is content to ride the Google YouTube wave, for now. As any smart media company knows (even an "old" one) though, the real money flows to the captains of the Web ships, not those that are merely hitching a ride.
At the end of the Web day, CBS wants to control its own user-generated and new media content ship, and rightly so.
YouTube, MySpace have the Web audience today, but there is no lock-in, from either side.
Last.fm co-founder is actually emulating YouTube King Hurley, already.
Richard Jones, Last.fm:
We will continue to execute our world domination plans – our focus is still music and the surrounding ecosystem. The founders (myself included) are still at the helm.
And so is Chad.
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