• The New York Times, Monday, December 11, 2006 10:32 AM

Whether its users like it or not, advertising and sponsorships are starting to change YouTube. The online video site, which is the host of official video from CBS Corp., has let the media giant move the comments that appear at the bottom of the page for each clip to another page.

"We just want to make sure the front page is a little bit cleaner," Quincy Smith, the president of CBS Interactive says, adding that it wanted to remove "profane, unconstructive criticism" and the off-topic ramblings of YouTube members from its videos' pages. Critical comments aren't deleted, but users would have to click through on "view all comments" to see what users have to say about certain video clips.

CBS is not the only producer to filter and move content--this is actually a task YouTube performs itself, although it also relies on brand rep to tell it when content is uploaded illegally or incorrectly.

So far, the content deal appears to be working out for CBS. On Nov. 21, the network announced that its videos were among the most-viewed on the site during the first month of its partnership.

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