August 1, 2007
CBS Plans to Sell Ads on Mobile Devices
The Wall Street Journal
 
CBS Mobile has forged partnerships with four of the country's leading mobile advertising-enabling companies — AdMob, Millennial Media, Rhythm NewMedia and Third Screen Media, in an effort to build a full-service approach to mobile advertising for its entertainment, news and sports programming. In line with its focus on innovation, industry firsts and open and non-exclusive partnerships with cutting-edge companies, CBS Mobile is the first major broadcast network to work with AdMob, Millennial Media and Rhythm NewMedia.

"We believe mobile advertising is one the biggest business opportunities in the mobile world, and we want to be at the forefront of it," said Cyriac Roeding, Executive Vice President, CBS Mobile. "Teaming up with best-in-breed companies in an open and non-exclusive way is the cornerstone of our strategy — and these companies are leading the mobile advertising marketplace in terms of intelligent ad serving and distribution technologies and services. They will enable us to expand our relationship with our Top 200 advertisers while reaching thousands of smaller advertising brands from around the world wanting to place ads around CBS Mobile content."

CBS also announced that starting immediately, it will provide clients with one of the widest menus of mobile advertising options in the market, ranging from text and banner ads on mobile websites, to commercials in video news and sports alerts, to video ads within mobile video, to commercials on CBS Mobile's 24/7 television network.

The four companies offer varying areas of expertise in mobile advertising.

AdMob is a leading mobile advertising marketplace. AdMob serves over 1 billion ads per month worldwide and over 350 Million per month in the US alone. AdMob serves banner and text ads on mobile web pages for advertisers and their agencies. Through AdMob's self serve capabilities and dedicated mobile ad sales force, CBS's content will be available to thousands of advertisers, allowing them to leverage rich targeting and advanced ad serving capabilities. CBS will initially utilize AdMob's mobile ads on three of its fast-growing mobile websites: wap.sportsline.com, wap.cbsnews.com, wap.theshowbuzz.com. AdMob was founded in 2006 and is based in Silicon Valley.


"CBS has consistently provided great content and innovative features to its users," said Omar Hamoui, AdMob CEO. "AdMob is proud that CBS has chosen the AdMob Marketplace to serve and manage its mobile ads based on our scale and advertiser base. The combination of CBS content and AdMob's sophisticated targeting and optimization technologies will provide advertisers with an important new channel in mobile."

Millennial Media operates mobile ad networks designed specifically to best meet the diverse needs of agencies, brands, and direct marketers. With Millennial Motion rich media for engaging user experiences, the Millennial Marketplace for targeted audiences on premium content, and Decktrade for large-scale performance campaigns, we help advertisers succeed in meeting their objectives. Millennial Media will provide CBS with both text and banner ads and will sell CBS inventory on the mobile websites and video products.


"We are thrilled to be working with CBS Mobile to provide leading advertisers with innovative and effective solutions to improve their mobile impact," said Paul Palmieri, CEO of Millennial Media. "CBS's continued leadership and innovation in mobile is helping to grow the overall mobile advertising market."

Rhythm NewMedia's intelligent ad-serving technology enables next-generation mobile video commercials to be attached to mobile video content dynamically and then distributed to targeted audience profiles. CBS will work with Rhythm NewMedia to offer this next-generation service in the United States. In addition, Rhythm's ad sales team will sell video ads for CBS. Rhythm is funded by The Carlyle Group, Morgenthaler Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners and Rembrandt Ventures.


"Rhythm NewMedia has demonstrated that targeted ad-supported video snacking is very attractive to both consumers and advertisers, in multiple countries. Rhythm is pleased to support CBS initiatives in mobile advertising," said Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm NewMedia.

Third Screen Media, which was recently acquired by AOL, offers a Web-based mobile ad management and delivery platform that quickly and easily connects advertisers, publishers and mobile carriers. With a reach of nearly 50 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers, it also has one of the largest single sources of mobile advertising inventory and the ability to target by specific demographics. A partner of CBS SportsLine.com for several years, Third Screen Media will sell advertising for CBS mobile Web sites.

"Having supported CBS SportsLine.com for the past few years, we're pleased to grow our CBS partnership to provide innovative campaigns on the mobile handset," said Tom Burgess, CEO, Third Screen Media. "We view CBS as a first mover in mobile advertising and applaud their efforts to bring relevant, targeted advertising to the mobile consumer."