CBS Cuts Out Download Middleman

The company announced Wednesday that it was experimenting with cutting out the Internet middlemen by offering downloads of its popular show for $1.99 an episode on its own website, CBS.com. The service is to be launched tonight, immediately after the show airs on the West Coast.

CBS would be the first broadcast network to sell its shows via its own Internet storefront. The move signals that CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves believes the network is a potent enough brand that it can go it alone -- without Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes software and website -- and thus not have to split the spoils.

Network executives cautioned that the experiment, allowing buyers to view episodes of "Survivor" for just 24 hours after buying them, did not rule out the possibility that CBS later could strike a deal with Apple, which sells popular shows such as ABC's "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" for $1.99 an episode.

CBS already has an arrangement to make "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" available on Google Video. But Google Inc. is still testing that service, and by simultaneously offering "Survivor" on both sites, CBS will quickly see which website has more traction with viewers.

"It's been our strategy to exploit content across as many platforms as possible," Moonves said in a news release. "This is not only a boon to fans of the show, who can now watch it at their leisure, but it also represents a great way to generate traffic for CBS.com while opening a whole new revenue stream for CBS."

In launching the "Survivor" downloads, CBS is endorsing a different purchasing model from the one used by iTunes. On CBS.com, buying an episode would be more like a video rental, because buyers have a temporary window in which to view a show.

A buyer of an iTunes download, by contrast, can replay it endlessly.

CBS is hoping that its system may better safeguard future DVD sales of its shows.

"It's unclear how [iTunes downloads] will affect DVD sales," said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media.

In addition, CBS wants to protect its overseas markets. Foreign countries continue to be lucrative outlets for TV producers to resell their programming, and CBS wants to avoid violating agreements that it has for shows that have been sold overseas. Only viewers in the U.S. will be permitted to download "Survivor" on CBS.com.