It’s not unusual these days for the big media companies to announce partnership deals with an Internet company or two or three.
But 13?
CBS can thank Internet strategist Quincy Smith for the adrenaline-fueled outbreak of deals. Ahead of launching the CBS Audience Network, which will distribute its hit shows like “CSI” or “Survivor” through agreements with AOL, MSN and Comcast, among others later this year, CBS landed some 13 deals to let viewers blend video clips from CBS programs into their MySpace and social network profiles, blogs and community pages.
It marks yet another move by CBS to draw audiences — and advertising money — to its shows on the Internet. The handful of deals struck by former corporate sibling Viacom, which is suing YouTube, look like baby steps by comparison. CBS aims to jam the Web with its content through as many partnerships and distribution deals as possible.
Here’s a list of the Web sites involved in the latest round of deals with CBS: Automattic, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, meebo, MeeVee, Musestorm, Ning, RockYou!, Slide, VideoEgg, Voxant and vSocial.
Smith’s dealmaking should come as little surprise given his quip last week about CBS’ broadband portal during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. ”CBS’s new chief Internet strategist now jokes that the Web address for Innertube should be ‘CBS.com/nobodycomeshere.’”
(Update: Just hours later, Facebook upped the ante and announced partnerships with 65 (!!) partners in one news conference as part of a plan to turn the social network into a software operating system for Internet media. 80 deals in one shot anyone?)


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