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News Clips for Sale on Custom-Made DVDs

Posted on: Friday, 14 July 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Gary Levin

Have a favorite 60 Minutes segment you just can't get enough of?

A new division of Internet retail giant Amazon.com is selling customized, 90-minute DVDs to viewers. It was launched Thursday, and initial choices are limited to archived material from TV's top newsmagazine and the CBS Evening News.

But Amazon's Sean Sundwall says the company expects to broaden its menu: "While CBS is kind of our launch partner, we're looking to expand the content available in the make-your-own format," he says. "We're confident ... this model will work long-term."

CustomFlix, an Amazon division, allows customers to select from "thousands" of clips dating as far back as 1990, from one-minute Evening News reports to 16-minute 60 segments, sorted by topic area (amazon.com/60minutes). Once ordered, up to 10 clips, or 90 minutes of footage, is burned to the DVD and mailed to customers for $24.95 ($2.99 shipping).

The footage has little value elsewhere -- 60 Minutes segments were featured earlier on CBS' now-defunct Eye on People cable channel -- so the experiment is a low-risk proposition. But the project eventually could expand with others to make-your-own DVDs of entertainment programming if rights issues can be settled; many shows already are sold in syndication, on DVDs and online. "It's extra-sticky with some situations, but not others," Sullivan said, declining to elaborate.

CBS spokesman Dana McClintock called the arrangement "strictly a CBS News deal."

(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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