30 March 2007AOL unit to manage ads for new NBC and News Corp venture
AOL, the internet services company, has announced that its marketing unit, Advertising.com, will manage the firm's advertising on the latest venture allowing users to distribute full-length TV shows and videos over the internet.
While the new venture has yet to be named, it will see NBC Universal and News Corp work together as they attempt to challenge the popularity of the video-sharing site YouTube, owned by the internet
search engine Google.
With the new site to be largely supported by advertising revenues, AOL has confirmed that Advertising.com will manage display and video marketing, with adverts to be placed within an embedded media player. This will in turn be used by the new venture's distribution partners.
In addition to signing up AOL, the new venture has also partnered with
Yahoo!, Microsoft's MSN and MySpace, owned by News Corp.
With legal pressure mounting upon YouTube, including the legal launch of a lawsuit from MTV's owner Viacom over copyright issues, the new venture is working to get the major media companies on board in order to avoid such difficulties.
NBC and News Corp have been the only large media firms to be linked with the new business so far. However, executives from both firms have recently confirmed that they would be willing to work in partnership with other media providers.