CBS puts soaps, 'Price' online
Network to offer on-demand streaming
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Eye has decided to make three of its top-rated sudsers -- and "The Price Is Right" -- available for free, on-demand streaming via CBS.com and the CBS Audience Network.
Serials "As the World Turns," "Guiding Light" and "The Young and the Restless" are now being posted at 6 p.m. ET Monday-Friday, right after the net's West Coast daytime feed concludes. CBS Audience Network includes websites from AOL to Veoh.
"Price" isn't online yet, but CBS has a deal in place with the show's producers to begin streaming soon. The Eye is talking to the producers of "The Bold and the Beautiful" about putting that show online as well.
Auds who want to watch daytime shows online will have to act quickly, however. CBS plans to make each episode available to stream for just one week after its initial broadcast. By contrast, episodes of many primetime skeins can be viewed for a month or longer after broadcast.
Barbara Bloom, who heads up daytime programming for CBS, said sudser streaming would be a boon to the net and its sponsors.
"It establishes more opportunities for our rabid fans to watch their favorite shows, creates a new platform to recruit potential new viewers to our daytime programming, and it offers our advertisers another means to reach a valuable demographic audience," she said.
Baby food giant Gerber has signed up as a "major" sponsor for the daytime streams, CBS said.
Eye isn't the first net to make its sudsers available online. NBC's "Passions" has been streaming online via NBC.com and available for purchase via iTunes, while the net's Sony-distribbed "Days of Our Lives" recently made its digital debut.
ABC, which owns its own soaps, was a pioneer in repurposing its daytime dramas, making same-day repeats of its shows available via the SoapNet cabler. Net hasn't yet made its sudsers available online, however.
