To my surprise, Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) has apparently decided to push, rather than pull, its moribund Bud.tv web site. According today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the brewer plans to inject the site with edgier content in hopes of luring back the hundreds of thousands who tasted the limited access site and spat it out.

After peaking at a quarter million unique visitors in February following a Superbowl ad,, the site has fallen to numbers below comScore's threshold for reporting (100,000). The company had been shooting for 3-5 million. Ouch.

The site came under criticism from attorneys general across the country, who weren't satisfied with the viewer verification process and feared youngsters would be exposed to advertising for alcohol (horrors!) In response, the company dialed up the registration process to a point beyond many people's (well, mine at least) tolerance level.

Despite a $30 million budget, the site has failed to retain viewers, and most analysts expected the company to pull the plug. Their suspicions seemed to be confirmed last week when the CEO said that the site would 'fade' in the last half of '07.

Anheuser Busch, apparently convinced the problem lies in content, decided instead to try again, promising to provide more targeted and interesting features, to become the go-to aggregator of beer-related entertainment.

I don't agree with its thinking, though. We internet viewers are a fickle lot, and the slightest impediment to their browsing is enough to send us away. If the site retains its barrier to entry, the content will have to be freaking fantastic to capture its target audience.

Bud.TV, Anheuser-Busch's (NYSE: BUD) attempt to capture the young adult audience that is fleeing television for online entertainment, has fallen flatter than the head on a week-old glass of beer. The internet site carries shows specially produced for Budweiser such as What Girls Want and Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.

The site was launched with great fanfare earlier this year, with hopes that it would soon draw 2-3 million visitors per month. In February, however, only about 250,000 visitors viewed the programming. Last month Bud.TV dropped another 100,000 visitors, according to ComScore Media Matrix.

Bud.TV ran into considerable criticism from a group of the nation's attorneys general who accused Anheuser-Busch of using it to corrupt those under drinking age. In response, the company built a screening process for potential viewers that requires them to wait while A-B verifies their age by checking against state driver's license databases.

The death spiral for this initiative is probably due to the difficulty of gaining access, and the impression that the site's vetting process invades customer's privacy. Without a proven, compelling product behind the curtain, I doubt Anheuser-Busch will be able to drive enough traffic to Bud.TV to justify its continuance. The company has been cross-posting some content on YouTube, hoping to entice viewers, but to little result.

According to Advertising Age, in March Bud.TV's viewership numbers finished just below those of a site for purchasing sheet rubber. Ouch.