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International Entertainment News

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

CBS Corporation Establishes The CBS Interactive Music Group

CBS Corporation Establishes The CBS Interactive Music Group

New Unit Combines CBS RADIO Online Assets and Last.fm to Give People More Content and Community Around Their Favorite Music

Industry-Leading Music Group Will Drive Increased Audience Share and Revenue Opportunities for the Company

David Goodman Appointed President of the New Group

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) (NYSE:and CBS.A) announced today the establishment of the CBS Interactive Music Group. The new business unit within CBS Interactive brings together the Company's industry-leading digital music assets, including CBS RADIO's more than 100 music websites and online audio streams, and its various mobile applications, as well as Last.fm, a leading music discovery site, to form a single division that will create richer and more immersive experiences for millions of music fans around the world. At launch, the combined assets of the newly formed CBS Interactive Music Group reach almost 40 million unique monthly users worldwide(1).

Leading the new entity will be David Goodman who has been named President, CBS Interactive Music Group. A veteran of CBS RADIO since 2002, Goodman has served as President, Digital Media and Integrated Marketing for the division since December 2007.

The announcements were made by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation.

"Today we are combining two industry-leading music properties to form a single group dedicated to music fans everywhere," said Moonves. "CBS is in a unique position to bring together the leading-edge technological resources at CBS Interactive with the content, promotional and sales assets at CBS RADIO to drive efficiencies into the business and create unmatched experiences for all of our customers. David is uniquely qualified to lead our efforts in the area, and I look forward to all he'll do to grow this new enterprise."

At launch, the new CBS Interactive music group will be comprised of the following:

   --  CBS RADIO streams of its music stations, and web only channels,       available online and via various mobile devices, including the iPhone       and select Blackberry models;   --  The interactive websites for every CBS RADIO music station which offer       extensive audio and video programming on-demand, embeddable song       dedication and upcoming event widgets, and exclusive opportunities and       promotions;   --  Last.fm, a leading music discovery site, offers fans millions of       tracks in every genre with radio streaming and free-on-demand       offerings through partnerships with Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, CD Baby,       independent aggregators The Orchard and IODA, and more than 240,000       independent artists and labels. The site also intelligently recommends       its 25 million monthly users new songs based on their listening       history and music tastes through its proprietary scrobbling       technology.   

"CBS RADIO and CBS Interactive have been moving down parallel paths to create a new media structure for the future that capitalizes on our unique strengths," added Quincy Smith, Chief Executive Officer, CBS Interactive. "The time is right to create a focused strategy that brings together the knowledge and expertise of both divisions so we can realize our true potential."

The CBS Interactive Music Group will complement CBS Interactive's four additional business units primarily focused on Technology and News; Business; Sports and Games; and Entertainment and Lifestyle. Neil Ashe serves as President of CBS Interactive. Goodman will report to Ashe and continue to work closely with Dan Mason, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS RADIO, to implement and monetize the division's ongoing digital initiatives. Goodman will continue to be based at CBS RADIO headquarters in New York.

"The unparalleled technology and operations expertise of CBS Interactive, combined with the power of CBS RADIO and Last.fm, allows this newly created vertical to develop best-of-breed sites and user experiences, and gives us a unique competitive advantage in the marketplace -- not only with our worldwide audiences but with the advertising community as well," said Ashe.

CBS RADIO's recent agreements to power AOL Radio and Yahoo! LAUNCHcast Radio's combined 400+ stations have vaulted CBS RADIO to the No. 1 most listened to online radio service. In March, CBS RADIO logged more than 6.5 million unique listeners who streamed in excess of 83 million total listening hours. The division is also home to the nation's most listened to rock (KROQ-FM), country (WUSN-FM) and classic hits (WCBS-FM) stations, as well as some of the best music brands in the business, such as WXRT-FM in Chicago, Alice@97.3 (KLLC-FM) in San Francisco, WVEE-FM in Atlanta, B94 in Pittsburgh, and the recently launched AMP RADIO (KLSX-FM) in Los Angeles.

"David and his team have crafted an intelligent long-term digital strategy for CBS RADIO and provided our properties with resources and tools local radio stations could never have imagined would be in their arsenal," said Mason. "Our stations are better equipped than any of their competitors at delivering music enthusiasts a fully interactive on-air and online user experience. With the power of CBS Interactive behind our efforts we will only get better. No other radio company has the caliber of resources of CBS and no other interactive company can own local radio like we do."

"By forming the CBS Interactive Music Group, we are able to create richer content experiences, deeper targeted advertising opportunities driven by experts in local and national sales, increases in overall audience and time spent with our brands, as well as implement common operating systems and shared technology resources to realize cost efficiencies," commented Goodman.

Goodman joined CBS RADIO in July 2002 as Executive Vice President of Marketing where he played a pivotal role in developing multi-dimensional radio platforms for major clients. He was promoted to President of Marketing in February 2005. Most recently, his responsibilities included developing and overseeing CBS RADIO's online and mobile strategy, as well as creating new content partnerships and monetizing the division's digital inventory.

Previously, Goodman spent six years at the Warner Music Group, Warnervision Entertainment and Warner Bros. While there, he led the drive to produce more than 1,100 hours of original programming making the division one of the leading distributors of music programming in the world. He was responsible for creating VH1's long running "Hard Rock Live" series, and launched the series "Russell Simmons One World Music Beat," Telemundo's "Tu Ritmo" and the Emmy-nominated "An Evening with Michael Crawford" on Public Television.

   (1) CBS Interactive & CBS RADIO internal metrics    About CBS Corporation  

CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS.A) (NYSE:and) (NYSE:CBS) is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW - a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), in-store media (CBS Outernet) and motion pictures (CBS Films). For more information, log on to www.cbscorporation.com.

About CBS Interactive

CBS Interactive, a division of CBS Corporation, is the best online content network for information and entertainment. With more than 180 million people visiting its properties each month, it is the 8th largest Web property globally. Its portfolio of leading brands, which include CNET, CBS.com, CBSSports.com, GameSpot, TV.com, BNET and Last.fm, span popular categories like technology, entertainment, sports, news and business.

About CBS RADIO

CBS RADIO, one of the largest major-market operators in the United States with stations covering news, sports, talk, rock, oldies, country, adult contemporary and urban formats, among others, offers audiences an enhanced and customized listening experience through the combination of on-air, online and new media platforms. CBS RADIO operates 134 radio stations throughout the nation's top 50 markets and broadcasts play-by-play coverage of more than two dozen of the country's leading professional sports franchises. CBS RADIO also has embraced interactive programming through the use of streaming, HD Radio, podcasts and mobile messaging. The division maintains exclusive agreements with AOL and Yahoo through which CBS RADIO powers AOL Radio and LAUNCHcast, respectively, and distributes its stations to their network of listeners. For more information on CBS RADIO, please visit www.cbsradio.com.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: allison.mandara@cbsradio.com

Source: CBS Corporation

CONTACT: Media, Dana McClintock of CBS Corporation, +1-212-975-1077,
dlmcclintock@cbs.com, or Karen L. Mateo of CBS RADIO, +1-212-649-9639,
karen.mateo@cbsradio.com, or Sarah Cain of CBS Interactive, +1-415-344-2218,
sarah.cain@cbs.com

Web Site: http://www.cbscorporation.com/


Profile: International Entertainment

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