February 29, 2008

ESPN Bringing Exclusive Content To The Web

Sports fans rejoice! It looks like ESPN will be producing exclusive content for the web in light of ABC's recent success with long-form television shows streamed via its online video players. While ESPN has always posted all kinds of short-form material on its site, this year they'll be launching "a number of new, original shows only on ESPN.com", according to Ed Erhardt, president of customer marketing and sales for ESPN and ABC Sports. While it's well known that short-form video content tends to generate the most traffic on the web, ESPN is looking to experiment with lengthier material and continues to work on expanding their platform and ad-serving capabilities.

CBS also recently announced that the network will stream for free all the NCAA's March Madness basketball games through their website and with an anticipated $22 million in online ad sales directly related to the b-ball tournament, it looks to be a success before it's even begun.

Via Forbes