Yahoo! To Create Online Television Platform

Internet operator Yahoo! is to begin billing itself as a broadcast platform, with the company’s chief executive, Terry Sempel, stating that the company offered other broadcasters the best chance of generating revenue from their archives.

Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge, Sempel told delegates that Yahoo!’s online search is an ideal way to “monetize some of the stuff that’s lounging around in warehouses and hasn’t made a dime in years.”

Sempel explained that Yahoo! has plans to become a broadcast media owner in its own right, commissioning content and creating its own broadcast identity. The firm recently secured the services of so called ‘scud stud’ Kevin Sites, a video reporter made famous by his front line reporting from Iraq, and will screen a series of his solo reports from the world’s most feared conflict zones.

Several media owners are currently investigating ways to make more from their archives, although the BBC has been the most forthcoming concerning its attempts to widen public access to its back catalogue of content.

Last month saw BBC director general Mark Thompson reveal details of MyBBCPlayer, a new online service allowing viewers to legally download seven days of TV programmes. The new online media player, which is expected to launch next year, will allow access to parts of the BBC archive, as well as an online simulcast of BBC One and Two (see Thompson Announces On Demand Programming From BBC).

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