LAS VEGAS—It's been a major theme at this year's CES: the mounting push by television networks to transfer more of their content to mobile devices and the Web.
That's presumably why the 2007 CES has seen a flood of new devices that facilitate this transmission, and the reason why the conference has featured the first two keynotes by media company CEOs in its 40-year history.
Last night, Disney's Robert Iger talked about the ways the company is expanding its programming to the Internet, and Tuesday night, it was CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves' turn to discuss CBS's effort to do the same.
Indeed CBS, like Disney-owned ABC, already makes many of its shows available (both for free and for a fee) on the Web—on sites including Google, YouTube and Apple iTunes.
According to many analysts, the entertainment industry as a whole has been trying to recover from traditional advertising declines and disappointing DVD and box-office sales by forging unlikely alliances with phone, cable, and Internet providers as well as companies including Apple.
As a show of CBS's continued interest in dispersing its content around the Internet, Moonves was joined during his presentation on Tuesday night by Sling Media's co-founder and chairman, Blake Krikorian, and Linden Lab (producer of Second Life) founder and CEO, Philip Rosedale.
"These guys are helping us extend our digital and interactive reach," said Moonves.
"The place for any media company serious about the future, is up front...beating the drums," Moonves said. "It begins where it always has: content. Content that extends to multiple platforms."
Sling manufactures the Slingbox, a device that plugs into a TV and transmits the feed via the Internet so that users can watch their favorite local TV shows anywhere they go. It also recently unveiled a new device, the SlingCatcher, that does the exact opposite, putting Internet content on television.
On Tuesday, Krikorian announced that his company would be partnering with CBS to offer Clip + Sling which will let consumer capture video clips from any CBS program and send them to friends and family.
Similarly, Linden Lab's Rosedale announced that his company will be offering up a virtual Starship Enterprise so that the Second Life community can re-envision Star Trek history and create mashups.
"One of the thoughts that I have always had is that technology has always made media consumers more solitary," Rosedale said. "The Internet, in a similar sense, has also made us alone. But Second Life lets you actually interact with real people…virtually."
Over the past few years, there has been some highly publicized bad blood between media and technology companies as both industries have quarreled over issues such as fair use and copyright.
But Moonves concluded his keynote with a significant statement, saying "big media companies don't have to fear new technology."
"CBS not only gets it [technology], they are embracing it in new ways."
"All of these relationships and partnerships were formed within one year," Moonves said. "By focusing on shared audience experiences, all of these developments are examples of how television can be more meaningful more connected than ever."
Online Media 
