Sunnyvale, California — Struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo, relentlessly trying to outwit its rivals, now plans to expand on its partnerships, announced an agreement with TV company Belo Corp., to deliver ads across Yahoo sites in Belo’s 15 local TV markets in the U.S.
The two companies have jointly worked for years as part of Yahoo’s newspaper consortium and have tested an ad sales partnership involving Belo’s local TV properties for a few months. This initiative, which would expand the reach of Belo’s advertising to a larger audience, hinges on an existing accord for Belo’s local TV sales teams to sell Yahoo ad inventory.
“The deal unites Belo’s seasoned local sales capabilities and leading television station Web sites with Yahoo!’s market leading reach and display advertising reach,” a representative for Yahoo quoted by WebProNews. “This newest initiative comes in addition to an agreement completed several years ago by which Belo stations supply select video content across Yahoo! Sites.”
“We have been expanding the portfolio of local media partners that we work with to include more local TV stations,” said Lem Lloyd, Yahoo’s VP North America channel sales. Yahoo has been testing the TV partnerships with five Belo stations and expects to roll out to all 15 Belo TV markets in the next year. Belo stations serve areas including Dallas/Fort Worth, TX; Hampton/Norfolk, VA; and Seattle/Tacoma, WA.
While local TV stations competing to attract ad dollars almost as much as their newspaper counterparts, a number of affiliates having trying to turn to online ad sales for additional support. At the same time, Yahoo has been concentrating more on the local ad markets where it has existing ties to newspaper publishers and the idea of adding more TV station website sales partnerships is part of a wider strategy to turn around its weaker than expected revenue numbers.
“The agreement expands the audience reach that Belo stations can deliver to its advertisers and will leverage Yahoo!’s industry leading advertising capabilities,” said Peter L. Diaz, Belo’s President of Media Operations, in a statement. “In many of our markets, we will now be able to reach up to 95 percent of internet viewers.”
Belo will initiate the program this summer, starting with the Dallas/Fort Worth, Seattle/Tacoma, Portland, New Orleans, Spokane and Boise markets. The remaining nine markets, including St. Louis, Austin, TX, and New Orleans, will be added over the next year.
Besides supplying online display inventory, Yahoo will also share ad technology tools with Belo. The initiative expands on an agreement the companies have had for several years in which Belo stations supply select video content across Yahoo sites.
“Our agreement with Belo significantly expands Yahoo’s local offering and enables advertisers access to the technology and scale they need to effectively reach online consumers,” said Lloyd, in a statement. For its part, Belo said the deal would boost its audience reach for advertisers, allowing it to reach up to 95% of Internet users in many of its markets. The company overall operates 20 local television stations and 25 Web sites.
Cox, Scripps, and Media General have similar agreements with Yahoo. “We work with those TV groups to help train their sales force and put together packages” for television and digital ads, said Lloyd. He added that when Yahoo concludes the Belo TV roll out, it will have “close to 100” stations on its roster.
Besides, in 2008 Yahoo expanded its newspaper site advertising deal with Belo, agreeing to make it the exclusive provider of local news video to Yahoo News in all Belo TV markets but Dallas and Boise. Yahoo shared ad revenue created through the clips with Belo. Belo was among the original members of Yahoo’s group of newspaper site partners.