Comcast.net Taps Yahoo for Display and Video Ads

Cable Giant Expects $1 Billion in Online Revenue in Next Five to Six Years

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Yahoo has inked a deal with Comcast that allows it to sell 80% of display and video advertising across the Comcast.net portal.
According to ComScore, the site has 15 million monthly unique visitors and had 80 million video views in March.
According to ComScore, the site has 15 million monthly unique visitors and had 80 million video views in March.

Two RFPs
Comcast in December sent out two requests for proposals: one to handle display and video advertising, another to handle search and text advertising. It has not yet decided who will handle search and text but expects to have a decision on that in the next month. AOL and Microsoft, along with Yahoo, were competing for display and video, according to a Comcast executive close to the deal.

The executive close to the deal said Comcast expects to generate $1 billion in revenue in the next five or six years through combination of the display/video and search/text ad contracts, plus ads sold by its own interactive and Comcast Spotlight sales forces. The will retain 20% of Comcast.net's display and video advertising to sell in-house and bundled as cross-platform and local deals.

Large sales force
Yahoo will not handle display and video advertising for non-portal Comcast sites, such as Fancast, which it recently launched; newly acquired Fandango.com; user-generated site Ziddio.com; and GameInvasion.com.

"One of the reasons we selected Yahoo is its expertise in terms of video advertising," said D'Arcy Rudnay, VP-corporate communications at Comcast. "We think they have a very large sales force, they have good relationships already with advertisers, are well known and respected and have a sophisticated platform, we think, on technology."

According to ComScore, the site has 15 million monthly unique visitors and had 80 million video views in March.

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Sorrell Avoids 24/7 Real Media Quioestn

WPP Chief Exec Focuses on New Media, Globalization - but Not Rumored Deal
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AdAge.com) -- WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell was the keynote speaker at a Silicon Valley entrepreneur conference today and talked about everything except what many in audience really wanted to hear: his rumored deal for 24/7Real Media.
WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell is a fan of live events, but not of answering journalists' questions.
WPP Group Chief Executive Martin Sorrell is a fan of live events, but not of answering journalists' questions.

Moderator Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of conference sponsor Accel Partners gave Mr. Sorrell an easy out during a question-and-answer session after the keynote. But when a reporter asked afterward about the deal for 24/7 Real Media, a third-party ad-serving network, he responded: "It's not your business." The New York Post today reported the possible purchase of 24/7 Real Media by WPP for more than $600 million.

Big believer in events
Instead, Mr. Sorrell highlighted in his speech a feeling among his clients of rebellion against the high cost of traditional media, particularly in light of its declining audience.

"Clients are experimenting because they are sick and tired of media escalating faster than the general price of inflation," he said.

He added, however, that he is a strong believer in live events such as the Super Bowl, World Cup or Academy Awards and expected their pricing to remain strong because there are few events that bring mass audiences together.

His goal is to shift a considerable portion of WPP's revenue from traditional advertising to new media, research and measurement.

Google, Mr. Sorrell noted, has revenue of $11 billion, but a market capitalization of $150 billion. The top four marketing holding companies have combined revenue three times that of Google, or $33 billion. But their combined market cap is only $50 billion by comparison, he said, calling it "the problem for us."

Friends for now
But he said Google has a "big challenge" in trying to capture top-tier marketers such as Unilever, Kraft and Nestle. When asked whether Google was a friend or foe, Mr. Sorrell said Google wants to be friends in the short term to gain access to WPP clients, but will be an enemy in the long run.

Among the things he urged the audience to think about was globalization, particularly the growing influence of India and China. "The balance of power has shifted not just technologically but geographically," he said. For example, China Mobile has 300 million customers; overall, China has 468 million mobile subscribers.

Another concern of Mr. Sorrell is distribution, with Wal-Mart, Tesco and other retail chains grabbing power, he said, and upsetting the "balance between production and distribution."

Ask to launch adsense competitor

AskAs a part of Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL), Ask will launch a new contextual advertising platform in the week of May 21st. This was confirmed by Paul Vallez, Director of Product Management. This looks like a serious attempt to compete with Google Adsense.

I think Ask perfectly understands the weak point of the adsense platform: transparancy. Many adsense publishers (like myself) will agree that Google is providing minimal information. Publishers have no insight in the revenue share, the performance of individual ads and the type of advertisers. Advertisers have to deal with pretty poor statistics regarding contextual advertising. Ask may have a strong selling point by providing better and transparent tools.

The ‘problem’ remains that publishers will not exchange adsense for ASL when that will decrease their revenue. Transparancy or not, it’s the $$ that count. It will be a challenge for Ask to achieve the same coverage and CPC as Google currently has. I certainly hope they will.