NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- While many in the advertising and marketing industry debate whether to continue advertising during wartime, RealNetworks is taking advantage of huge traffic surges at Web news sites to aggressively sell its RealOne Superpass video service.

CNN.com and ABCnews.com
The company, which charges for use of its proprietary RealOne Superpass video streaming system, has partnered with two major news sites -- CNN.com and ABCnews.com. Both Web sites have closed off their video war news to all but those who pay for the RealOne Superpass media player.

Meanwhile, war news rivals such as CBSnews.com and MSNBC.com are making "free video" a major element of their Web site graphics and promotions.

Merrill Brown
Making this all the more interesting, Merrill Brown, the editor who originally built MSNBC.com into a highly respected online news powerhouse, is now the senior vice president of RealNetwork's RealOne Services and, through Real's CNN and ABC partnerships, is in competition with his old online newsroom.