CBS Corp. is ramping up its mobile media services by creating "CBS Mobile," a new sector within its CBS Interactive division. Cyriac Roeding, who has served as vice president of CBS's wireless efforts since 2005, has been named to head up the new division.
"The creation of CBS Mobile within CBS Interactive further positions us to occupy the audience and advertiser interfaces of the future," said Quincy Smith, president of CBS Interactive, to whom Rodeing reports. "Mobile is a huge opportunity for CBS and we are delighted to announce the world class team and partners Cyriac is assembling."
Roeding will be assisted by Jeff Sellinger, who has been appointed vice president of CBS Mobile. Sellinger was previously director of CBS Wireless.
Since moving to CBS from 12snap, a European mobile marketing company in 2004, Roeding has helped secure CBS mobile entertainment deals with Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV service, Verizon VCast, AT&T/Cingular and Amp'd Mobile. He has also developed mobile interactive projects for The CW's "America's Next Top Model," "Entertainment Tonight," and "CSI:NY."
The Tiffany network also announced this week the launch of three Web sites catering to mobile users. The sites include the CBS Mobile Store and two new advertising supported mobile Web sites for sports and news.
On The CBS Mobile Store, users can download a variety of exclusive mobile content, including games and wallpapers and voicetones specifically for the mobile phone from CBS programming. "Live wallpapers" will feature scenes from CBS reality shows that can be downloaded in the form of still images within hours of the broadcast and daily mobile video alerts from David Letterman, called "Dave TV," featuring excerpts from the previous night's show. Content on the CBS Mobile Store is available either at a subscription rate or one-time fee.
The WAP-based (Wireless Application Protocol) CBS sports Web site (wap.CBSSportsLine.com) uses technology from CBSSportsLine and features real-time scores and the ability to control fantasy sports teams via the mobile phone. CBS News (wap.CBSNews.com) provides direct access to full stories and images of near real-time breaking news events. Both WAP sites are ad supported on most carriers, with the content available for free to mobile users.
CBS plans to launch additional video offerings for the mobile video community in the coming months, including WAP sites for content from CBS Entertainment, The CW, "Entertainment Tonight," and CBS's online entertainment news service Showbuzz.com.
