The ads for Viacom sites including MTV.com, VH1.com. Nickelodeon.com and Comedycentral.com will be powered by Yahoo’s newly launched search marketing system known as Panama.
The companies said the partnership may later extend to all 140-odd Viacom sites.
It seems likely that Viacom’s present dispute with Google – the company is suing Google’s YouTube unit for US$1 billion for copyright infringements – may have pressed the company closer to Yahoo.
Certainly Yahoo seems to think so. Even in the official announcement, Yahoo chairman and chief executive Terry Semel couldn’t resist taking a slightly veiled shot at Google’s copyright troubles.
“Viacom is a global leader in entertainment that shares Yahoo!’s commitment to connecting users to the content, products and services for which they are looking while respecting copyrights and other intellectual property rights at the same time,” Mr Semel said.
“Aligning Viacom’s popular brands, leading content and large audience with Yahoo!’s more targeted, relevant advertising, marks the beginning of a powerful and engaging partnership between our two companies.”
Viacom chief executive Philippe Dauman said Yahoo had made “impressive strides” with its new search marketing system and that the relationship with Yahoo could be expected to grow over time.
Viacom is understood to have held talks with both Google and Microsoft before deciding to partner with Yahoo.
Yahoo provides search marketing services to advertisers in 22 countries. Its new search marketing system – currently only available in the US – is designed to deliver even more relevant sponsored search and contextual ad results.
Viacom is the number-one online entertainment destination and the 11th most-popular overall destination on the Web.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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