Philadelphia— Comcast has steered an advertising deal with General Motors, parked around six of CBS’s primetime shows available on the cable company’s video-on-demand service.
New episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, NCIS, Numb3rs and Jericho are now available to Comcast’s digital-cable customers for free. But the programming includes a trio of 30-second spots — before, after and at the midpoint of each episode.
Comcast Digital Cable subscribers can view the programming, which contain ads for the giant automaker’s GMC and Hummer brands, for up to four weeks, beginning the day after they premiere from Black Rock.
About two months ago, CBS and Comcast renewed their on-demand agreement, but modified terms that previously made some of the broadcaster’s programming VOD accessible at a cost of 99 cents per episode in markets where there were CBS owned-and-operated stations. Comcast has long advocated free content for its customers supported by advertising as its preferred on-demand model.
“Two years ago, people wondered how we were going to get top broadcast programming.” said Comcast senior vice president and general manager of video services Page Thompson. “This marks the latest step in that evolution as we can now offer top CBS shows free to our customers. And you can feel confident that we’re talking to other networks about their content.”
Comcast On Demand continues to offer select NBC series fare in the network’s owned-and-operated markets for 99 cents per installment.
