Applications
CBS partners with community sites, social application providers to add interactivity to its Audience Network
MUMBAI: US media conglomerate CBS‘ division CBS Interactive is partnering with community-building websites and social application providers to add greater user functionality to the online CBS Audience Network. The announcement includes deals with new companies as well as expanded relationships with existing CBS Audience Network partners. Through these online properties and social application providers, users can easily incorporate CBS clips into their profiles, websites, blogs, widgets, wikis, and community pages. This enables them to discover and personalise CBS content and to use it to communicate with others. At the same time, CBS gains promotional value online while learning about its audience. |
The online partners that currently make up the syndication side of the CBS Audience Network, as announced last month, include AOL, Microsoft, CNet Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Brightcove, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh. CBS also has distribution deals with Amazon, Apple and Yahoo, among others. New online partners adding increased functionality to CBS Audience Network include: — Automattic – Automattic‘s flagship product is WordPress, the blogging software used by millions of bloggers and media publishers. Automattic also operates Akismet, the leading anti-spam service for blogs, social networks, forums and wikis. — Clearspring – It provides cross-platform widget services. They make it easy to use content and services from across the Internet to weave personalized experiences. With their flagship service, digital content and service providers can easily package, distribute, and analyze the performance of widgets via a single platform. — Dave Networks – This is the first provider of an integrated video distribution and social community platform designed to ignite brands. Boasting a robust set of software features, Dave empowers brands to build digital ecosystems through interactive video social community portals that function as a public hub where customers, fans, and users can develop dynamic personalised profiles, upload and share content, blog/video blog, comment on message boards. — Goowy Media – Goowy develops innovative online products and services including yourminis, a widget platform that simplifies widget development, syndication and measurement for content owners and 3rd party developers. In addition, yourminis.com offers a destination gallery that allows consumers to discover Widgets for one‘s Blog, website, personalized startpage, or desktop. — Meebo – This is a website for instant messaging that lets one IM from any computer and access all of one‘s friends in one place. meebo recently announced ‘meebo rooms,‘ places where users can chat and view media live with their friends. — Ning – This platform allows anyone to create their own social network about anything. The free service allows anyone with an idea for a social network to choose a combination of features (videos, blogs, photos, forums, etc.) from an ever-growing list of options and customize their social network in any way they want to. — RockYou! – RockYou! is the leading provider of widgets on the web. The company serves over 150M widgets viewed per day to over 200 countries on social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and Bebo. RockYou! widgets include photo slideshows, glitter text and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. RockYou!‘s widgets enable advertisers to connect to an established online community that embraces viral user generated content and is one of the first sites to offer revenue sharing opportunities for partners. |
CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith says, “Today, we are taking the CBS Audience Network directly to the user. In launching the CBS Audience Network we solidified our position as the most widely distributed professional content provider on the Web thanks to our great video distribution partners. “We now want to empower our audience to be creative and deepen their experience with our content by allowing them to share and embed CBS-provided clips to their blogs, wikis, widgets, community sites and whatever else gets thrown our way. We are delighted to have so many quality partners — established and start ups — helping to bring CBS content to the online community.” |
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
