At today’s Yahoo! event in New York City, Ross Levinsohn, the EVP of Yahoo News and Ben Sherwood, the President of ABC News announced that Yahoo is teaming up with ABC News, giving Yahoo exclusive access to ABC News content. As part of the agreement, Good Morning America is now exclusively part of the Yahoo network (and on Yahoo’s own platform).
The launch includes three “online-first” video series. Joint live content is premiering today, and features an interview with US President Barack Obama (Today at 2:35 PM EST).
Yahoo’s future success will depend on how it will “revolutionize the online media landscape.” The company repetitively touted the statistic of 100+ million users/month, and feels “the future of news and information is up for grabs.” Content is currently free, with no plans for subscriptions at this time. As far as advertising goes, Yahoo feels ABC’s clout will boost opportunities and revenue.
The goal here is not to be another content licensing partnership. Yahoo is betting on premium content, and is merging ABC’s news team to make this happen. Both companies are looking for ways to connect reporters with the Yahoo community, particularly during the upcoming election. This hints at the possibility of social interaction between viewers and reporters.
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Yahoo’s Ross Levinsohn seems to have a lot invested in Livestand, hinting that it may be using it in future partnerships. Levinsohn also said the company is open to exploring tablet and mobile platforms. “In the right circumstances, they’ll look for other categories [of partnership].”
No word on other partnerships at this time.
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