Moonves Says CBS Is Open To Fan-Generated Ideas

CBS announced plans last week to build a virtual Star Trek environment in Second Life, with the possibility of tapping into consumer-generated story ideas for future Star Trek productions.

CBS President and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said in an address in Las Vegas that the company had made deals with both YouTube and Second Life to "extend the digital and interactive reach of our world-class assets" and build connections with the audiences that use new media, according to MarketWatch.

In addition, noted The Associated Press, the company is showing unprecedented openness in allowing snippets of its shows to be shown and "mashed" on the web. Moonves said that CBS would embrace technology that would allow viewers to take clips and re-edit them, something fans of Star Trek and other series have been doing for many years in making musical songvids and convention clip shows.

"If somebody spends the time to take 20 clips from 'CSI Miami,' I think that's wonderful," Moonves told a reporter. "That only makes him more involved with my show and want to come to CBS on Monday night and watch my show. And we're going to get paid for the clips this guy takes off our air as well. It's win, win."

Moonves said that his wife, Julie Chen, was partly responsible for his recognition of the value of audience-repackaged content. "You know what that meant?" he asked. "[The fans] were involved, they were watching, they were having fun with our content." And it drew in additional audience members.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!