CBS Case Study
How’d they do it?
Microsoft Silverlight ™
Silverlight delivers rich, cross-platform, interactive experiences, including animation, graphics, audio, and video.
The CBS audience tells it like it is.
“This Web application, created using Microsoft® Silverlight™, enables our audience to engage, interact, and share their local stories and content.”
Darren Person
CTO, CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group
The Situation
CBS offers news straight from the source.
The CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group wanted to get viewers more engaged on their site. Using Microsoft Silverlight, CBS worked with its partner frog design to create a rich, easy-to-use Web application that supports member-generated audio, video, and image files. Plus, local affiliates can personalize the experience, focusing on community events and interests.
The Challenge
Encourage contributions, but make sure people have their facts straight.
Viewer-generated content is everywhere you look online—as are concerns about its accuracy. CBS wanted to tap into viewer knowledge and maintain journalistic integrity at the same time. Darren Person, CTO, CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group, says, “In this new age of information, our site visitors are quickly becoming the fastest sources of breaking news. We want to leverage their content, while ensuring seamless review and approval processes.”
The Solution
All the news that’s fit to…share with your neighbors.
CBS and frog design used Microsoft Silverlight to create a Web application that promotes community and lets visitors engage with the news in whole new way. The new sites give them a place to rate, comment upon, and share content. According to Mark Ligameri, Executive Creative Director at frog design, “The rich media solution encourages real people to offer reports on their communities. Working within its network of affiliates, CBS can then screen the content for accuracy, and post it quickly.” Adds Person, “We also included the capability for ad integration so advertisers can reach a localized, targeted audience.”
The Upshot
Content is hero but Silverlight saves the day.
“The streamlined, minimalist design makes content the hero. A sleek screen and clear navigation lend visual and spatial priority to the media files themselves,” says Ligameri.
About CBS
CBS Television Stations operates in 22 markets with 36 stations nationwide and is the leader in local news and content in television and through digital distribution platforms.
The Digital Media Group within CBS Television Stations manages editorial operations, programming, advertising sales, business development, and technologies for all Internet, wireless, and other non-broadcast distribution paths.
