CNBC and Yahoo Finance Announce Content Partnership

Effective immediately, CNBC and Yahoo will be teaming up to jointly distribute content and programming across their networks. For the financial news world, this partnership marries the largest financial broadcaster with the leading financial news website, a prospect that could give competitors in the space reason to squirm. According to Mickie Rosen, svp of Yahoo's Global Media, the partnership has evolved out of a long relationship with CNBC, and together the companies are aiming to reach an unduplicated online audience of 40 million U.S. viewers per month across the platforms. For CNBC, the partnership brings the formidable viewership of a portal to its online presence, which is still fairly new (until November 2006, CNBC was partnered with MSN). CNBC president and CEO Mark Hoffman told Adweek that the deal helps to "grow the digital side of the house" noting that "scale is important but we didn't want empty-calorie scale." Hoffman said that Yahoo Finance's position as a leader in online finance made it an easy choice, noting that the partnership makes both companies "a force without peer" in the industry. For Yahoo Finance, the draw appears to be CNBC's broadcast platform, which will bring Yahoo Finance journalists into more homes via CNBC's television programming. "We've been number one for 53 straight months and we already have a dominant position in the space," Rosen said. "For us this is about creating even more premium content experiences together." Rosen noted that Yahoo Finance's focus will be around new original video content, with CNBC acting as the premier content provider for Yahoo Finance. The announcement follows a pattern for Yahoo, which most notably launched a content partnership last year with ABC News. Rosen describes the alliances with both CNBC and ABC News as part of Yahoo's strategic priority, which so far appears geared toward bringing Yahoo into more viewers' television sets while also stocking Yahoo video content with big TV names. In terms of what the partnered content will look like, both sides are holding any announcements until a later date (most likely the fall). Hoffman noted that there will be some Yahoo embeds in CNBC newsrooms, which could draw speculation as to a possible co-branded broadcast show. However, CNBC and Yahoo told Adweek that they were holding off on any specific content announcements for the time being. Looking past the editorial side, both CNBC and Yahoo Finance hope the deal will attract big advertising opportunities and will engage in joint sponsorship sales opportunities. "We've begun to have early conversations in the buying community and it has been warmly received," Hoffman said, noting Charles Schwab to be among those interested. Combined, the two companies reach a large swath of the largely affluent financial community (Hoffman notes that 71 percent of all people who call themselves active traders will now have access to CNBC and Yahoo Finance), a demographic with formidable purchasing power.

Performance Marketing

CNBC and Yahoo Finance Announce Content Partnership

Deal looks to bring co-branded material to 40M online viewers per month

Charlie Warzel

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