Media giant Disney, which is having a stellar year so far, says it's unlikely to enter into any "broad-sweeping partnerships" with Internet portals like Google or Yahoo as it builds up its Web
business. "Our opportunities are pretty significant without them," said Robert Iger, the company's chief executive. Iger's comments come less than a week after rivals News Corp. and Viacom announced
major partnerships with Google, the Web's biggest search and contextual marketing network provider. Viacom's deal will see Google distribute video clips from its properties like MTV and Comedy Central
across Google's publisher network. The ground-breaking deal is believed to be something Disney, with its vast content resources, could build on--but Iger dismissed the idea of striking a similar deal
because he wants greater quality control. "One of the big issues we have is who controls the advertising and who controls the customer," he said. Disney received a boost recently from its
better-than-expected second-quarter earnings; Iger singled out the performance of its Internet sector, which contributed $500 million in the second quarter. Disney hopes to improve on that with a new
Web site in 2007 that offers video and community applications.
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