Ben Folds, Aimee Mann also join in special cameos, ring tone promotions
On a recent episode of CSI: NY, Detective Danny Messer's cell phone rang with a familiar tone. "Coldplay?" his partner asks. "Yeah," says Messer. "It's called 'Talk' -- something my girlfriend's really good at." In two commercial breaks that followed, CBS ran ads for the ring tone used on the show - the second single from Coldplay's multiplatinum X&Y -- before it was available elsewhere. No money changed hands for the product placement or commercials, but revenue from ring tones sold during the one-week offer -- at $2.50 a pop -- was split evenly between CBS and Capitol.
"The Coldplay ring tone was an experiment," Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Entertainment, says of the November 30th episode. "The hope is that, in the future, ring tones could provide additional revenue for us." CBS hopes to earn income from ring tones of theme songs and music featured prominently on other shows. The CSI deal is part of CBS' broader efforts to integrate music into its programming: "We are recognizing that we can do a lot more with the labels," says Tellem. "And they are recognizing that we can really get their artists in front of a lot of people."
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