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CBS tries to play YouTube’s game

Janet Babin Feb 28, 2007

SCOTT JAGOW: When I think of March, I think of March Madness. The network that airs the college basketball tournament has something new up its sleeve this year. CBS wants fans to create home videos about their teams. Janet Babin reports from our Innovations Desk at North Carolina Public Radio.


JANET BABIN: Starting today, college basketball fans can go to a CBS website and upload homemade video clips about their favorite team. The New York Times reports that the network wants the site to connect sports fans to their passion. But Richi Jennings with Ferris Research says fans can upload or watch similar videos in lots of other online hotspots.

RICHI JENNINGS: Are they going to want to go to CBS’s site to watch them, or are they going to want to watch them on YouTube, MySpace or Google Video? I think many consumers today are increasingly suspicious of big business brands.

To encourage people to make videos, the ad agency Planet 3 has created some fan video samples to put up on the site. They’ll also air on CBS, MySpace and YouTube.

I’m Janet Babin for Marketplace.

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