• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 2, 2006

In a move that's sure to cause a stir at ABC, as well as the other major networks, long-time Super Bowl advertiser Anheuser-Busch will use its buy in ABC's coverage of the game on Sunday to launch its own direct-to-consumer network. Details of the strategy are still under wraps, but the new channel, code-named "The Bud Screen," will debut sometime during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XL, offering viewers the opportunity to download advertising, programming and branded entertainment content directly to their computers, iPods and other devices.

The initiative is the most aggressive example yet in a growing trend of marketers utilizing broadband video downloading to bypass traditional TV outlets to deliver their content directly to consumers. Unlike previous direct-to-consumer video plays, the Anheuser-Busch deal is not a one-time, or limited test of broadband video distribution, but is the launch of a new, ongoing distribution channel that eventually is expected to be branded "Bud TV."

"This changes the whole concept of broadcasting out to consumers. Typically media companies have done that. With the Internet, we blow out that old model and enable advertisers to reach consumers directly without having the media companies sell the ad space," says Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company that will power the new Bud channel.

As part of the launch, Anheuser-Busch will encourage Super Bowl viewers - the largest conventional TV audience of any program of the year - to sign up for a "season's pass" to the new channel, which will periodically download content undetected on their hard drives until they are ready to use it.

Anheuser-Busch is not the first major marketer to experiment with a TV bypass model. PepsiCo ran a limited channel via Maven's network for Mountain Dew several months ago, and Massive is working on a similar concept for General Motors' Chevrolet trucks line. Major movie studios such as Disney, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures have also used it to distribute movie trailers direct-to-consumers. But Anheuser-Busch is the first to look at it as a continuous channel for distributing programming, advertising and branded entertainment by tapping into the growing appetite of the consumer download marketplace.

Maven's Ozguc says marketers have been leaping into the direct-to-consumer video market ever since Apple Computer launched its Video iPod deal with Walt Disney Co. late last year to begin distributing TV shows directly to consumers. Since then, all of he major networks have launched similar initiatives (see related CBS story in today's MediaDailyNews), as have marketers, albeit more quietly.

Others have, too, including big players in the PR industry, which see the consumer video download market as a new pipeline for distributing video news releases and other content directly to consumers, bypassing their traditional gatekeepers of TV stations and networks.

"In effect, we are creating our own digital network," says Laurence Moskowitz, president, CEO and chairman of Medialink, the largest distributor of video news releases, or so-called VNRs. This week, Medialink officially announced the creation of its own direct-to-consumer distribution channel with the release of a new VNR for General Motors' Buick division featuring golf superstar Tiger Woods. The system currently utilizes Google's and Yahoo's broadband download servers, and can automatically convert the corporate videos into any consumer format, including iPod videos.

Medialink has quietly been utilizing broadband video downloads to push corporate video content directly to consumers for months, but is going public with its plans now as part of a more ambitious program to reengineer how it distributes corporate video content. Moskowitz calls the overall effort "narrative marketing," and says that in many ways, it competes directly with conventional advertising services offered by Madison Avenue, including media planning and buying.

Moskowitz says Medialink is not yet abandoning its traditional system of distributing corporate videos as news releases to TV stations and networks, but he says that over time, the direct-to-consumer market could grow to be bigger and would give marketers more control over their messages than relying on traditional TV news department gatekeepers.

It's also a lot less expensive than the ways Madison Avenue has traditionally used to get corporate messages out. Unlike TV advertising spots, which can cost hundreds of thousands to produce and millions to buy media time for, Moskowitz says Medialink can produce high-quality, 90-second TV clips for "$20,000 to $30,000" and can do it on the fly. The cost of the media time using the direct-to-consumer method is essentially zero.

Maven's Ozguc agrees that the economics of this new marketplace are entirely different than the ones traditionally used by Madison Avenue and the major TV networks. He would not specify costs of programs like "The Bud Screen," but he says, "It's a lot less than the cost of a TV ad, but it's a more than the cost of a banner ad."