• Marketwatch, Friday, January 12, 2007 11:31 AM

As expected, CBS Corp. Chief Les Moonves appeared on stage with Sling Media, maker of the Sling Box, and Linden Labs, creator of the online universe Second Life, during his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show to announce two partnerships with Second Life and Google's YouTube. Many feel that partnering with two companies that appear to pose a threat to CBS' core business is either forward-thinking or aggressively stupid.

Marketwatch believes the move is a very canny one. With the notable exception of Apple's digital music monopoly, looking back at the history of Big Media's blunders on the Web, failure in many cases has come down to "walled gardens" like AOL. The Internet generation doesn't go for them. Period. Yesterday's content owners aren't the only producers on the free-flowing content exchange of today. Media companies should square themselves with that.

Instead of complaining about copyright infringement, CBS has actually decided to create something new with YouTube. The new deal is an "American Idol"-esque competition for the day's most inspirational 15-second video, voted on by YouTube and CBS, and aired each night on CBS's broadcast network.

In its Second Life partnership, CBS is creating a virtual "Star Trek" environment for trekkie fans, where they'll tap into interesting story ideas, possibly convening to help write future episodes. CBS' moves are in stark contrast to Disney's "walled-garden" approach to the new Disney.com.

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