America Online and CBS Join to Promote Fall TV Sked

America Online and CBS said they are launching the “AOL/CBS Tune In!” campaign, a first-of-its-kind online promotion to celebrate CBS’s fall premiere week.

For a nine-day period beginning on Sept. 19, CBS will have a promotional presence throughout many of AOL’s highest-trafficked areas, and will also offer AOL members the opportunity to interact directly with some of the biggest CBS Television personalities through AOL Live events. Spending on the campaign was not disclosed.

CBS will premiere its new fall schedule on Monday, Sept. 21. Each night’s primetime lineup will be promoted daily in a variety of ways throughout many of the most popular areas of the AOL service.

The campaign will also provide CBS with a prominent presence on AOL’s “Fall TV Preview” area of AOL’s Entertainment Asylum both on the Web and on the proprietary service.

“Fall TV Preview” will feature schedules, network stars’ photos, multimedia features, and show descriptions. CBS promotions and nightly lineups will also be highlighted in banner ads on AOL email screens, in AOL People Connection, the AOL Welcome Screen and a Thank You Screen members will see as they exit the service.

As part of the agreement, AOL Live will feature a different CBS celebrity each day of the campaign in a live online interview where AOL members can interact with the stars. Members can also link directly from AOL Live to CBS promotions and information about the celebrities and their CBS shows.

“Our AOL partnership gives us an exceptional opportunity to increase awareness and sampling of our new primetime schedule among the highly sought after audience of media-savvy viewers in interactive households,” said Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Television. “AOL’s unparalleled reach among these viewers permits us to reach a highly valuable audience at the time of day when they are making their viewing decisions. It’s a great vehicle for extending our fall marketing strategy.”

“By using the unique nature of this medium to cycle the online audience back into television viewing, CBS is embracing this medium in a way that no network has ever done before, and we applaud their initiative, their innovation, and their creativity,” said Bob Pittman, president and COO of America Online.