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Video lite, brewed by Bud

Harry Fuller Executive editor, CNET News.com
Harry Fuller escaped from television work to be executive editor at CNET News.com.
Harry Fuller

Coming to your flat screen and your cell phone: Anheuser-Busch promotion just off the production line. The brewing giant is setting up its own video production Unit, reports AdAge.com.

Some observers believe this is a signal of Anheuser-Busch turning toward Hollywood. The brewer's product placement deal with "Wedding crashers" was their first show biz partnership in over a decade.

If this video venture begins to work as an advertising tool, we may see Budweiser vignettes all over youtube. Even automatically downloaded to your cell phone. Won't you be pleased? And this could signal the beginning of major advertisers pulling support for old-fashioned linear TV programs. Budweiser is currently a major supporter of TV sports, which are major profit centers for TV stations and networks. So if this is the beginning of advertiser erosion for TV sports, we could soon find broadcasters and cable sharing more of that the pain so prevalent now among big city daily newspapers.