CBS BUYS TV AGGREGATOR SITE CLICKER

CBS has bought the company responsible for Clicker.com, a kind of TV Guide listing all of the shows available on the Internet (and other long-form videos), and made its founder head of CBS Interactive. Jim Lanzone, who had previous served as CEO of Ask.com, will succeed Neal Ashe, who took over the unit when CBS acquired CNET in 2008, where he served as CEO. In a statement, CBS chief Les Moonves said, “Clicker’s products and proprietary technologies add firepower to our existing portfolio of entertainment properties, and if we can help grow Clicker to its full potential in the years ahead, the strategic value could be tremendous.” “This is a dream job for me in a number of ways, and it’s an ideal fit for Clicker,” Lanzone told the Los Angeles Times. “We are winding up in a place where we can really flap our wings and build our business.”Clicker integrates with Facebook, advising users what their Facebook-linked friends are watching on the site. On its current TV homepage, the site lists just three shows available via CBS’s TV.com, while listing six via Hulu.