Intel, Marimba, and Macromedia announced Monday that PBS Online will be the first user of their new hybrid CD-ROM/push-media product called "Infinite CD." For the three technology companies, the PBS Infinite CD will be a chance to showcase their newest products; but for PBS Online, the CD-ROM will offer another vital revenue stream for its site.
The Infinite CD is the latest part of Intel's push to encourage Web entertainment content, and is specifically designed to deal with bandwidth problems for online video and animation. The technology will enable PBS Online to create a CD-ROM with a database of bandwidth-heavy content, such as video and animations, which will work in conjunction with a database on its Web site. The database can be quickly accessed and updated via a Castanet tuner from Marimba. The first part of PBS Online to get the treatment will be shopPBS, where PBS hawks its videos and books.
"We see shopPBS as our main form of revenue covering the costs of PBS Online, and 20 percent of all our email is requests for videos or information about our products" says Cindy Johanson, managing editor of PBS Online. By allowing potential customers to view long videoclips and browse a deeper database of information about its products, PBS hopes to increase those vital sales.
PBS's funding has been cut drastically in recent years - and will shrink by more than US$65 million this year alone. At the same time, the PBS Online site has been growing. The site contains more than 25,000 pages already, and will relaunch on 2 April with new content sites that, for the first time, aren't tied to related PBS television shows. As part of its attempt to cover those costs, PBS Online recently announced that it will accept advertising in the form of sponsorships.
The new product will ship late in the year, and, if it's successful, PBS Online plans to start using the Infinite CD technology to push out content features as well. Whether the initial CD-ROM will be free for avid PBS consumers has yet to be decided.
