Hot on the heels of its announced acquisition of Right Media, Yahoo! scored a big coup by snagging a multi-year deal for online display and video advertising from top cable operator (and second largest broadband provider) Comcast. The deal, bound to send pangs of worry among the Google exec ranks, covers only Comcast.net, the online portal for primarily Comcast’s subscribers which, nonetheless, consistently ranks among the top web sites in terms of traffic.
Comcast.net gets 2.5 million page views per month and draws 15 million unique visitors. Comcast is also trying to beef up its online video business as it gears up to go toe-to-toe in the hotter-than-hot Internet video market. Comcast is, moreover, in the relatively rare position of bundling its TV ads with its online ads through its separate ad sales arm, Comcast Spotlight.
This is a big blow to Google, but not an unexpected one. Comcast has let it be known for quite some time that it’s not happy with the search giant’s advertising performance.
However, it’s not a complete loss for Google. The new Yahoo! deal doesn’t extend to search or other specialized online properties that operate under Comcast’s interactive media division. Still, Comcast signed a deal last month with a Google rival, FastMedia, and the folks in Mountain View have got to be pretty nervous.
Cynthia Brumfield at 5:51 PM|Comments(0)
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