• by Wayne Friedman , May 22, 2008

Looking to make it easier for advertisers to target 18-49 sports fans online, CBS Corp. will launch an online ad network called CBS College Sports Media.

The new ad network will cover CBS-owned Web sites, such as CBSSports.com, NCAA.com, and the network's 215 college partners, including Notre Dame, North Carolina and USC. Collectively, those sites reached more than 10 million unique visitors in March.

CBS already claims that tens of millions of dollars are spent by advertisers annually on these sites; the new advertising network should boost this activity.

Previously, CBS launched a broader online ad network, catering to a number of different demographics under its CBS Audience Network. As with the sports network, the Audience Network group covers scores of sites where CBS video content is streamed.

CBS has had big success with online sports--especially its NCAA March Madness basketball championship. Advertising in association with video streaming for the event pulled in $23 million in advertising revenue. With the new deal, CBS hopes to draw advertisers in for the rest of the year, touting other NCAA sports championships that CBSSports.com will offer.

The new unit will not just help online sports advertisers, but those that buy traditional sports TV advertising time on CBS, too.

"CBS College Sports Media will allow us to streamline the process of selling our digital collegiate properties, while offering clients packages to be bundled with television assets from CBS Sports and CBS College Sports Network, giving advertisers multiple platforms from which to deliver their message," said Jo Ann Ross, president of network and interactive sales at CBS, in a statement.