Bud.TV

Bud is set to launch a TV website next February and will spend 10% of their budget on internet marketing.

From Herald Tribune:

"The site — called "Bud.TV" — is aimed at consumers between the ages of 21 and 27 who routinely visit popular sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube, said Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch's vice president of global media and sports marketing.

"The use of the Internet is clearly a space that this generation has grown up with," Ponturo said. "The main reason that we're doing this is that we need to connect to these new beer consumers."

The Web site will have seven "channels" of original programming, said Jim Schumacker, who will oversee Bud.TV. The channels will feature sports shows, standup comedy and reality shows that are set in bars and restaurants.

Schumacker said one channel will imitate the YouTube phenomenon, letting views produce their own skits and advertisements featuring Anheuser-Busch products like Budweiser and Bud Lite.

While the shows will be original, Anheuser-Busch will not make them itself, Ponturo said. The company will act like an executive producer, choosing ideas to fund and buying completed shows to broadcast."

From Ray Bacon's blog:

"Anheuser-Busch will use its Super Bowl commercial time to launch a direct to consumer network called "The Bud Screen." The network will offer all manner of programming, branded content and advertising delivered to the desktop or an iPod. The brewer intends the network to be long-lived and to eventually be named "Bud TV." We've said it before and we'll say it again, the middleman - the networks - just aren't needed any longer. When a brand or program producer can deliver content directly to the consumer, there's no need for the current TV network set up. Oh sure, big changes are years away but it's happening and it will continue to happen faster and faster as more brands and content producers realize they can have their own channel of distribution."

Several alcohol brands already have pseudo TV channels such as Crown Royal, Cuervo and Jack Daniels but their content simply derives from their TTL marketing materials. Bud is set to embrace the "current.tv" trend and we will watch with interest.

Thanks to Mike Iskas from Zenith for this.