CBS Eyes Local Ads

Viacom signed a deal to use Kanoodle's ad serving technology to deliver contextual ads to CBS and UPN affiliate websites. For example, a search on "dishwasher" would generate ads from the local appliance store along with any related news stories.

The big media companies like Viacom see Google raking in billions of ad dollars and view this as an opportunity to strike back. However, contextual ads on affiliate stations probably won't work for several reasons.

Who uses a TV affiliate site for search? I can count on one hand the number of times I've used search on a station's website, and never for classifieds or anything product related. They would need to invest in local search services worthy of competing with Google or Yahoo.

But the bigger problem is the content doesn't match up well with contextual search, so an AdSense-like service doesn't match. TV affiliates websites focus on local news, so you get lots of weather, car accidents, crime, transit strikes, local sports, and not much else . How does this contextually tie into furniture shopping, restaurants, or car dealerships?

Because local news is image and not text heavy (even by TV news standards), a better match would be to run short video ads before must-see local stories. TV stations would be better off maximizing the revenue of their exclusive video content (missing persons reports, floodwaters etc.) rather than contextual ads.