• by Erik Sass , November 29, 2007

CBS Radio is getting a big chunk of video content for its radio Web sites through a new partnership with Truveo, a video search service owned by AOL. In addition to music videos, the content will include user-generated video and professionally produced content in a variety of news and entertainment categories. Thirty-five CBS Radio sites have already gone live with Truveo, and more are planned in the near future.

Truveo's professional video content partners include CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CNN, Disney, Fox, MTV and NFL.com. According to the company, it reaches an audience of 40 million every month through a variety of agreements that bring it to independent sites. David Goodman, president of marketing for CBS Radio, remarked: "With the boom in online video, incorporating this complementary content on our station Web sites makes perfect sense as a way to reach this ever growing audience."

The CBS-Truveo agreement is another major move by radio broadcasters to claim the visual medium as their own. Radio broadcasters have also tried to start or acquire companies capable of serving streaming audio and video advertising to online users.

TargetSpot--partially owned by CBS Radio, Union Square Ventures and Oddcast--went live in September, and aims to serve 450 stations around the country by the beginning of 2008. Ads can be targeted using demographic criteria, location (using ZIP codes), or by specific stations. Ad formats include audio and 15-second video.

In mid-November, Triton Media Group bought Excelsior Radio Networks and its two subsidiaries, Dial Global and MJI Interactive. With a price tag said to exceed $100 million, the deal will allow Triton to expand the reach of ads through Excelsior's online network. MJI Interactive's tools include StationCaster, which has both audio and video capabilities.

In July, Katz Media Group acquired Net Radio Sales, renamed Katz Net Radio Sales--allowing advertisers to deliver ads across a variety of audio and Web-based platforms, including hundreds of station Web sites in its digital network. The company also supports a variety of interactive ads, including video content.

Also in July, Ronning Lipset Radio announced that it had partnered with Corstarr to use its Adcor technology for delivering Internet radio ads. Adcor allows broadcasters to set up multiple radio channels and deliver ads across one or all of them, targeting audiences by demographic characteristics and daypart. In the future, Lipset and Corstarr hope to expand the Adcor offerings with online video, social networking, and mobile functionality.