CBS's Wasted Effort

CBS (NYSE:CBS) has jumped on the Web video bandwagon with a new online channel called Innertube. The move makes sense given recent similar initiatives from many of the media giant's competitors, not to mention the simple fact that there's advertising money to be made with Web streams. Still, CBS's effort seems less worthwhile in the near term than those of its rivals -- unless the company can come up with something truly unique.

In recent months, media giants have swamped the Web with video programming. The type of content varies. Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) AOL, for example, has put "classic" TV shows from decades past online. Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS), on the other hand, is banking primarily on its hit show Lost to draw Web viewers. Viacom's (NYSE:VIA) Comedy Central network offers a slew of more digestible short clips from many of its current shows.

Over the longer term, CBS likewise plans to put its current TV programs online. It's hard to argue against this strategy. After all, doing so gives companies the chance to squeeze more and more advertising revenue from the same material. And then, of course, many media companies also generate revenue by recycling their content on Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes.

CBS's Web plan, though, is somewhat different from those of its competitors. In the near term, Innertube will concentrate on broadcasting original programs rather than TV shows. The idea is to offer "edgy" video that will appeal to younger viewers, according to TheWall Street Journal. It's an understandable strategy, given the amount of time younger people spend online.

However, it's not clear that developing a lot of new material is worth the cost or effort at this point. Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) recently came to this conclusion and announced that it would scale back its own ambitious Web programming development plans. With the whole television world migrating online, there's already plenty of marketed content with high production value on the Web. And then Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) video offers a slew of material submitted by amateurs. Innertube, meanwhile, will be spending money to develop content with no name recognition to compete against this onslaught of material.

Granted, CBS could come up with some winning ideas, particularly if it can find a way to integrate special online features into the programming. In its current formulation, though, I don't think Innertube is likely to be much of a hit.

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Fool contributor Brian Gorman is a freelance writer in Chicago. He does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.