CBS Gets the Online Ad Bug for NCAA

Here's a rule of thumb: Advertisers are more motivated to pay for impressions than consumers are to pay for content.

I suppose I could assume this is a rule of the new economy, but--c'mon--this has been true since the early TV days, right? Well, we are seeing it exploding now. The latest news is that CBS Sportsline is going to offer the $19.95 subscription fee for its online NCAA Tournament coverage. I mean dropping as in, completely taking away. The math they did is that they would dramatically increase their viewership, making ads more valuable. Figure that we're in a premium ad-space shortage, inventing a whole lotta new inventory sounds like a good strategic decision.