Yahoo, NBC Team On Sports, Ad Sales
- by Mark Walsh @markfwal, December 10, 2012
Yahoo and NBC Sports Group have announced a broad partnership to collaborate on
programming and ad sales.
Under the deal, Yahoo will stream select NBC Sports events, including “Sunday Night Football” (which began Sunday night) and the “NHL Game of the Week” as soon as the league's resolves its labor stalemate. Live streams will be powered by the NBC Sports Live Extra video player with TV Everywhere authentication.
The agreement also calls for Yahoo and NBC to share on-air and editorial talent, including “Sunday Night” host Bob Costas and Mike Florio of "ProFootball Talk" on NBCSports.com and Yahoo Sports reporter and columnists, such as Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski.
The joint efforts extend to the creation of original made-for Web video programs that will appear on both Yahoo Sports and NBCSports.com. Both entities will continue to maintain editorial control of their respective newsrooms and digital properties.
Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports will also pair to cross-sell ad packages and sponsorship opportunities to clients across various properties: the Rivals.com, NBC Sports Regional Networks, GolfChannel.com, Rotoworld.com and Allisports.com in addition to their respective flagship sites.
"Passionate fans need news and analysis about their favorite teams in real time, and they want access to that information no matter where they are,” said Ken Fuchs, vice president of Yahoo Global Media and head of Yahoo Sports and Games.
The deal is just the latest high-profile content alliance for Yahoo. Last year, the Web portal aligned with ABC News for news and election coverage, and in June, it struck a partnership with CNBC on business news coverage. A key factor driving the deals is increasing the quantity and quality of video content across the site and attracting premium ad dollars.
Yahoo had the second-largest online video audience to Google Sites in October, with 55 million unique viewers who watched more than 496,000 videos. It also had the second-largest audience overall to Google, with nearly 170 million monthly visitors.
Based on a recent study from YAYA Connection on how 18-24 year olds consume sports, this is a really smart strategy. This demographic wants to follow their favorite team and will turn to pirated sites if the leagues don't find a way to make it available. The study also found that segments of this group are big fantasy players and selling sponsorships which combine in-game videos with rewards for fantasy play would engage YAYA fans which is a huge bonus for leagues since participating in fantasy is a gateway to greater engagement--including buying tickets and merchandise.
Stephanie Padgett
Faculty Mentor, YAYAConnection
Missouri School of Journalism