Yahoo Hooks Up with the Beeb

By Geoff Duncan Published December 1, 2006

Through a new agreement with ABC News, Internet portal Yahoo has entered into an agreement to carry BBC News video on its news Web sites. The deal will bring about 30 clips a day to Yahoo’s News site, covering everything from top stories and breaking news to U.S. and international news, business, politics, tech, health, and entertainment. (Entertainment may include sports: remember, soccer in the U.S. is football in the U.K.)

“We are pleased to bring the renowned journalism of the BBC to Yahoo News, a leading online news service that reaches millions across the world,” said Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC’s Global News division, in a statement. “The demand for BBC content in the United States is growing all the time and we believe our expansion on new digital platforms is critically important to helping us meet that demand.”

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If you’re wondering why the arrangement was made through ABC News, that’s because ABC—and it’s corporate parent Disney—forged a partnership with the BBC way back in 1994; in early 2006, ABC made a deal to act as the Beeb’s exclusive representative for news and wireless content in the North American market. The deal is the first time a U.S. news network has leveraged content by teaming up with an international news organization.

“The BBC has established itself as an unparalleled global news-gathering organization, and its content will be a tremendous complement to the world class news already available on our site,” said Scott Moore, Yahoo Media Group’s head of news and information. “The BBC has a cool factor with younger audiences, a natural fit for Yahoo News users who are generally younger than audiences at other news organizations.”

As a sign of the BBC’s renown, we could note that it’s one of only a handful of news organizations whose sites are banned in China. But that would be cheeky, yes?

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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