CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS, NYSE: CBS.A) is an international mass media conglomerate. CBS operates in five separate segments: Television, Radio, Outdoor, Publishing and Interactive.[1] The CBS television network is ranked first among the major U.S. TV networks by ratings, by Nielsen Media Research.[2] CBS obtains most of its revenue from its entertainment segment. CBS' competitors are also primarily in the television business, including Disney's ABC and Comcast's NBC. The nature of the industry dictates that CBS is heavily dependent on advertising revenue for a lot of its business. This has led to some struggles for CBS from 2007-2009, with the economic downturn negatively affecting the advertising industry as a whole. Other trends affecting advertising include the rising prevalence of time-shift technology (such as DVRs) and the rise in the number of people watching shows online instead of on TV, both of which harm CBS' overall ad revenues. Business Overview The CBS corporation is a global media conglomerate that operates businesses in television, radio, outdoor advertising, the Internet, and publishing.[1] Business Segments Entertainment (53.6% of Revenue) This segment is CBS's largest business in terms of revenue.[1] The television segment is comprised of four subdivisions which include: CBS television network, CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution, Showtime Networks, and CSTV College Sports Television.[3] Contents 1 Business Overview 1.1 Business Segments 1.1.1 Entertainment (53.6% of Revenue) 1.1.1.1 CBS Television Revenue Sources 1.1.2 Cable Networks (10.04% of Revenue) 1.1.3 Local Broadcasting (18.1% of Revenue) 1.1.4 Outdoor (13.3% of Revenue) 2 Trends and Forces 2.1 Audience Acceptance 2.2 CBS-AOL Merger 3 Competition The company shares control of the CW network with Time Warner (TWX), which controls the remaining 50% share. The CBS Paramount Network Television and CBS Television Distribution provides the company's television production and syndication operations. The Showtime Networks are CBS's premium subscription television stations. The Showtime channels provide commercial free media for subscribers and are mainly focussed on films, but also include sporting events and network series.[4] CBS's College Sports Network is the company's cable network and online digital media outlet that is devoted to college sports.[4] CBS Television Revenue Sources Advertising Revenue: CBS earns most of its revenue through advertising sales.[5] This dependency on advertising leaves CBS especially vulnerable to the proliferation of new media formats that allow consumers to time shift programming (i.e. fast forward) and thus may reduce advertisers’ willingness to purchase advertising (though current estimates of time shift programming availability/usage are relatively low). Furthermore, CBS is vulnerable to decreases in advertising in general, regardless of new media formats. License fees: These revenues are generated through the CBS Television Distribution Group and CBS Paramount TV. Affiliate fees: These revenues are generated through the Showtime and CSTV networks. Home Entertainment revenue: The licensing of home video rights for CBS content is accounted as home entertainment revenue.[6] Cable Networks (10.04% of Revenue) This segment operates Showtime Networks and CBS College Sports Network.[7] Local Broadcasting (18.1% of Revenue) This segment includes CBS television stations and all of the company's radio stations. CBS's radio operations include 137 radio stations across 29 states in the U.S.[1] The company targets the largest radio markets in the U.S. with 76% of its stations in the top 25 domestic markets.[8] Formatting includes adult contemporary, oldies, rock, country, all-news, talk, sports/talk, and jack (“play anything”). CBS's radio business is highly dependent on advertising revenue.[9] Outdoor (13.3% of Revenue) CBS Outdoor provides outdoor advertising around the world, with displays in most of North America’s largest metropolitan areas.[10] These displays are made on billboards, buses, trains, mall kiosks, stadium signage and transit shelters. CBS Outdoor also sells advertisements throughout the globe, including exclusive rights to sell advertising on the London Underground through 2015.[10] Way to go Michelle. Not only are you a hard working woman, you are also one of the nisect people I've ever met. Thanks to Smart Girl Politics, I've gotten to know you even better. God bless you and congrats on your big win! Trends and Forces Sorry that I did not see this sooner, Jim. My grsodann is 20 and still sports-obsessed. Many Autistics have obsession; for my grsodann it's sports. My little buddy loves to game online with his Wii, and if it's not a sports game it's Rock Band or Guitar Hero. We watched the game, and of course he was ecstaic over the Saints' win. We did our traditional high-10-low-10-hip-bump of victory for his team. I hope that this win helps NOLA get the additional attention that it still needs. As for what destroys a game, the emphasis on specialization has destroyed the enjoyment that I used to have. I am old enough to remember when players had to be able to multitask: play more than just one position, play both offense and defence, etc. One just doesn't see the verssatility in the players anymore (sigh). My mother was a football fan all her life, and she hated the influx of specialization in the professional sport but continued to watch college ball until her death. I enjoy our local high school games. I have seen more heart and determination on the local high school fields in one game than in an entire NFL season. We watched our local working-class school underdog team hold off the better-rated opposing school with a goal line stand through 3 plays that changed the momentum of the game. We saw our boys defeat a school from a more high rent' area at their homecoming; it was sheer bliss. My grsodann's English teacher that year was also the coach for the JV cheer squad, and all of the girls were so sweet to him. When I was in high school, the cheerleaders did not sit in the cafeteria with the special ed kids or the odd' kids, but those girls made my grsodann feel that he was just as good, just as worthy as anyone else in ways that I never could and for which I will always be grateful. It may explain why he is still sports-obsessed and why football remains a favorite. When you are different', you never forget the first popular person/people who treat you well or the things that you associate with them. And fortuneately the FotF ad was s close to innocuous as it could get, so that was not a major issue at least. I agree with Nancy: if many of us hadn't pitched a major fit, I do believe that the ad would have been much more blatant in its anti-choice agenda. To browse you have to seacrh for it. I stumbled through it a week or so ago to find an address when I was lost.I found 2 ways to remove a book. If you go to kindle.amazon.com and log in and browse your books. There's a column for status. Mark the X (remove from my list) and it will drop off next time you are on your account. The second is to hook up to your computer with the usb cable. It will see your kindle as another drive. Go id and delete under kindle then docs.They don't make it too easy, but I still love my Kindle. Audience Acceptance Predicting the level of audience acceptance of content in television and radio programming is very difficult and hence there are many flops. Also, with such high competition for an audience's attention, releasing a program during the same time or around the same time as another high quality show from a competing show may result in hindered performance, despite the program's high quality. A fair portion of revenue is dependent on the library of television programming CBS maintains (past programs, etc.), which must continuously be filled with popular content (a difficult task in and of itself), and failure to maintain it would adversely affect revenues. CBS-AOL Merger CBS Radio (CBS) and Time Warner (TWX) under AOL Radio are combining opertations. CBS radio indicates that this is big push in the high growth market of streaming radio. The managements' comments include that partnering with AOL will help them achieve pursuits of their own, providing opportunities to scale and positioning them as leaders in this high growth market. CBS and AOL have come together to form what they term as a leadership position with massive distribution abilities. Competition Because CBS is such a diverse media conglomerate, it competes against many companies across its different media industries. For example, in television broadcasting, CBS competes against other television companies like Walt Disney Company (DIS)'s ABC and General Electric Company (GE)'s NBC. The CBS television network is ranked first among the major U.S. TV networks by ratings, by Nielsen Media Research.[11]