General Motors has agreed to sponsor on-demand viewing of CBS primetime shows through Comcast's digital cable systems, CBS and Comcast announced Monday.
Under the deal, which runs through December 31, GM will fully sponsor primetime dramas CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS, Numb3rs and Jericho on Comcast’s video-on-demand (VOD) service. The programs will be ready for VOD viewing at no additional cost to Comcast ON DEMAND customers nationwide the day after their network airing, and will be available for four weeks.
The only CBS/Comcast VOD offering missing from that list is Survivor, which makes sense because the show is now sponsored by competitor Ford (GM dropped its sponsorship of the show last year).
CBS first made its shows available through VOD last January, when Comcast begin selling episodes of CBS shows for 99 cents each in its markets where CBS has owned-and-operated stations. Last month, CBS then announced that all of its VOD programming, including several additional series, would be available to all Comcast on-demand customers at no cost throughout the country.
Under GM's sponsorship agreement, the CBS shows will feature only three brief commercial messages: one before the show begins, one at the midpoint and one at the conclusion. The GM spots will feature the company's GMC and HUMMER brands. GMC trucks will appear in the VOD broadcasts of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; NCIS; Numb3rs, and Jericho, while the HUMMER brand will appear on CSI: Miami and CSI: NY on-demand broadcasts.
"We are excited about taking this next step in our partnership with CBS and Comcast," said Betsy Lazar, Executive Director of Media and Advertising Operations for GM, in a statement. "It's a great way to help bring CBS programming to its loyal fans, and it also provides a relevant platform for GM to present product information about our GMC and HUMMER brands to that audience."
