Yahoo, Comcast Partner on Display Ads

Yahoo and Comcast announced today that they will partner for displaying advertising on the Comcast website. Interesting when Comcast recently joined FastMedia who is looking to take on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

In a ZDNet article, “FAST claims, optimistically, that within two years the FAST Media Network of sites will surpass Google in search and advertising activity. It is an expression of the long tail of search, according to Perry Solomon, vice president and general manager of FAST’s Media Solutions Group. “More and more people are building specialized search, with local ads and moving out the evil empire guys [Google, Yahoo and Microsoft]”.

Should be interesting to find out if Comcast is still part of the FastMedia partnership.

The rest of the Comcast, Yahoo press release read:

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, today announced that Comcast Interactive Media and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide, have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership for online display and video advertising services on Comcast.net. Comcast.net is a top 10 online site with more than 2.5 billion page views, more than 80 million videos viewed and 15 million unique visitors per month.

“We are delighted with our new long-term strategic partnership with Yahoo!. Their scale, experienced sales force, advertiser relationships and industry leading display advertising capabilities will bring significant new monetization opportunities to Comcast.net.,” said Amy L. Banse, president, Comcast Interactive Media. “As Comcast continues to grow its online presence we will monetize our other online sites while driving innovative cross-platform services and creating new business models.”

Yahoo!’s advertising sales organization will be the primary marketing and sales channel for Comcast.net display and video advertising. Comcast.net will tap into Yahoo!’s extensive network of leading brand advertisers and benefit from Yahoo!’s sophisticated ad-serving, targeting and inventory management capabilities to enable the pricing, targeting, delivery and reporting of display and video advertisements. Comcast Spotlight will continue to bundle Comcast.net in cross-platform and locally-targeted advertising packages to its growing base of local, regional and national advertisers through its existing sales force of over 3,000 sales executives.

“This announcement is consistent with our goal to create the leading advertising marketplace and give our advertisers the ability to connect with their target customers wherever they are on the Internet,” said Hilary Schneider, executive vice president of the Local Markets and Commerce Division and the Yahoo! Publisher Network Division at Yahoo!. ” With Comcast’s high quality broadband audiences, trusted brands can effectively extend their reach and impact as we continue to deliver our advertisers’ most relevant marketing messages to the most highly qualified audiences at the right place and time.”

Yahoo! and Comcast Interactive Media will collaborate to create and market new sponsorships and custom advertising packages that are supported by Yahoo!’s platform. Yahoo!’s advertising services will be integrated within the redesigned Comcast.net planned later this year. The redesigned Comcast.net will include enhanced features, user experience and new advertising opportunities across the site. Search services and Comcast Interactive Media’s other properties are not part of the partnership.