CBS Inks Hoops Deal With YouTube Despite Viacom Lawsuit

CBS Sports Inks Deal With YouTube For NCAA Tournament Channel

CBS Sports has launched an NCAA Tournament Channel on YouTube.com, sponsored by Pontiac. The site features game clips and highlights, uploaded by CSTV in near real time. Users can offer comments on video clips, and the channel includes links to CBS Sports, CBS SportsLine.com, CSTV.com and NCAASports.com. Despite video being available on the site yesterday afternoon, at presstime there was not a single NCAA men’s basketball tournament video ranked in the top 100 most-viewed sports clips on YouTube (THE DAILY).

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: In L.A. Dawn Chmielewski notes Viacom, the former corporate cousin of CBS, this week sued YouTube and parent company Google for $1B, seeking an injunction that would prohibit YouTube from showing Viacom content. But Viacom Chair & CEO Sumner Redstone, who also controls CBS, “praised the CBS deal, saying YouTube paying to use clips is the kind of arrangement Viacom should have as well.” Redstone said the CBS/YouTube deal “is in no way inconsistent with the Viacom position, which is not to permit any person or company to misappropriate its product without paying for it.” Chmielewski writes CBS’ YouTube deal “is the handiwork” of CBS Corp. President & CEO Les Moonves, “who has embraced digital distribution and has touted YouTube’s promotional prowess,” as the net and site have teamed on several content deals (L.A. TIMES, 3/16). YouTube Dir of Content Partnerships Chris Maxcy said the Viacom lawsuit “has no impact on the work we have with CBS” (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 3/16). DAILY VARIETY’s Steven Zeitchik writes CBS’ “willingness to make available to YouTube some of its most prized content shows that the company and new [CBS Interactive President] Quincy Smith are willing to play ball with Google if an acceptable licensing agreement can be reached” (DAILY VARIETY, 3/16). Smith said that basketball fans “would be posting footage on YouTube in any case, and that the agreement reflected the media group’s strategy to reach out to those internet communities rather than trying to discourage them.” Smith: “We’re going to talk to everyone out there to think about what the best communities are for our advertisers, but we need to get paid for our content” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 3/16).