CBS ADDS TO ITS INNERTUBE LINEUP

To gain additional exposure for some key freshman and sophomore series during the important fall launch period, CBS announced plans to stream episodes of several of the Network’s primetime shows produced by Warner Bros. Television and Twentieth Century Fox Television free of charge on CBS’s broadband channel innertube.

Starting in September, the series being offered on innertube include: from Twentieth Century Fox Television, the freshman series SHARK, as well as the sophomore series How I Met Your Mother and The Unit; and from Warner Bros. Television, the freshman series The Class and Smith, as well as the sophomore series The New Adventures Of Old Christine, starring Emmy nominated Julia Louis-Dreyfus. With all six shows, each of the first four original episodes of the season will be available for viewers to watch for free on innertube for a week following its Network broadcast.

“Streaming episodes on innertube creates more opportunities for audiences to discover our new and returning series during a critical time of the year when audiences are settling into their viewing patterns,” said Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group. “It’s because of our strong relationships with our partners at Warner Bros. and Twentieth Television that we were able to come to this first-of-its-kind agreement, which recognizes the great opportunities available for both networks and studios in connecting the television and online platforms.”

As previously announced, this fall CBS’s innertube will also provide free streams of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Jericho, Ncis, Numb3rs and Survivor. Each episode of the three CSI series, NCIS and NUMB3RS will be available for free viewing on innertube for four weeks following the initial Network broadcast. Episodes of Jericho and Survivor will be available on innertube all season long.

CBS’s innertube, http://www.cbs.com/innertube, an advertising-supported broadband channel that launched in May 2006, offers a wide range of free entertainment programming to Internet users and can be accessed through CBS.com. Innertube features a line-up of original series produced expressly for the Internet, as well as new shows that are companions to popular CBS brands, and full episodes of existing Network series. Current innertube offerings include the web-exclusive series “InTurn,” “Animate This!” and the five-day-a-week talk show “House Calls,” as well as entire episodes of CBS’s popular prime-time series “Big Brother: All-Stars.”