CBS to Replace ABC as AOL’s News Provider

CBS is replacing ABC as the exclusive broadcast news provider to America Online Inc., a big leap for CBS Corp. as it tries to catch rival news organizations with more popular Internet sites.

Under the multiyear pact announced Tuesday and taking effect next week, CBS will provide text, audio and video to America Online, the world’s largest online service. Anchors and guests from programs such as “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” will also be featured on live AOL chat sessions.

The firms will share advertising revenue generated on AOL, its CompuServe affiliate and AOL.com Web pages containing CBS news content, and CBS will receive payments from America Online for on-air promotion of the Internet service. The companies declined to release other terms of the deal.

For now, CBS will also be the only broadcast news provider on the AOL.com Web site, which is available to anyone on the Internet, not just AOL’s 15 million subscribers. But AOL said it could strike deals in the future with other broadcasters for that site.

ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney Co., had been the exclusive broadcast news provider to AOL since 1997. Michelle Bergman, a spokeswoman for ABCNews.com, would not comment directly on whether it tried to renegotiate with AOL. But she stressed that ABCNews.com has grown quickly since it was launched in May 1997 and has already established its own strong Internet presence.

AOL President Bob Pittman said his company’s switch to CBS builds on earlier promotional partnerships.

AOL and CBS teamed up to promote the broadcaster’s fall lineup last year and have been promotional partners in the CBS SportsLine venture, he said.

This season’s top-rated network, CBS had lagged rivals as a news presence on the Web. But the AOL partnership will give it one of the premier online news sites.

New York-based CBS’ shares rose 75 cents to close at $32.63 on the New York Stock Exchange. Dulles, Va.-based AOL fell $1.88 to close at $146.94, also on the NYSE.