A Switch in Advertising Modes that Does Not Hurt the Mail Yet

Advertising Age has reported that CBS just announced that it has sold $37 million in on-line ad sales for its on-line streaming of the NCAA basketball tournament. (Go Temple and Maryland!)  This is nearly as many ads as they sold on broadcast television.  

CBS' success in selling ads on-line suggests that a model combining broadcast television and free ad-supported streaming on-line can compete successfully with the cable/satellite model that have made ESPN the juggernaut in sports.   More importantly, CBS's success suggests that NBC's decision to restrict online access to the Olympics to only cable/satellite customers may lose out to the advertising revenue that on-line streaming offers.

For mail, the emergence of an advertising market for high-interest streaming media should cause no immediate problems.   However, the addition of another viable means of delivering advertising will over time increase the pressure on prices charged by all "traditional" advertising modes including mail.    advertising modes