• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, May 8, 2007

Viacom might still be feuding in court with YouTube, but Viacom majority owner Sumner Redstone apparently doesn't bear hard feelings toward the video-sharing site.

Another company overseen by Redstone, CBS Corp's Simon & Schuster, plans to develop a new video channel on YouTube, Bookvideos.tv, to promote authors. The book publisher will create about 40 clips that will offer glimpses into the lives of writers like Mary Higgins Clark and Sandra Brown, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The move once again shows that, despite the anti-YouTube bluster, companies are realizing that the site offers a convenient route to millions of viewers seeking entertainment.In fact, several weeks after Viacom filed suit against YouTube, CBS created an NCAA channel on the site.

If it's true that YouTube built its audience on copyrighted content, including clips of Viacom programs like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," that audience now makes the site more valuable to CBS and other companies seeking eyeballs for marketing purposes.

Without YouTube, Simon & Schuster and other companies that want to distribute video clips might have to deal separately with dozens, if not hundreds, of video-sharing sites. Yes, for this project, Simon & Schuster is also syndicating the clips out to some other video sites, as well as allowing users to link to or embed the clips at will. But it's YouTube that offers the biggest numbers -- proving that the site's tremendous audience doesn't just profit YouTube, but other marketers and media companies that want to reach Web users.