It wasn’t long ago that people were calling for Terry Semel’s head atop Yahoo! 2006 was a rough year for Yahoo!, but things have a funny way of unfolding. Nearly a quarter into this year, Yahoo!’s stock has outperformed Google’s, and Google has managed to go from frienemy of the media companies to outright target.
Today, News Corp. and NBC Universal announced plans to counter GooTube with a “game-changing” move in online video, according to News Corp. COO Peter Chernin. The new project, headed up by NBC’s digital czar George Kliavkoff will combine content from the respective firms, aggregate content from all interested content providers and reach 96% of US households, thanks to distribution agreements with AOL.com, MSN.com and Yahoo!
Fitting, since Google now reaches 50%-80% of the households thanks to its far-flung reach on Google.com and its contextual ad network.
While today’s news still leaves other media companies on the sidelines, as this graph via Valleywag points out, the message it sends to Mountain View is clear: we’ll prove that our content has value.
That, is a direct response to Eric Schmidt’s mishandling of matters, who as recently as two weeks ago told old media companies “should ‘prove’ its products have value.”
Terry Semel, who just yesterday was boasting his giddiness for Panama - Yahoo!’s new search platform - was smiling today as his old media friends at News Corp., Time Warner (via AOL.com) and NBC Universal were set on showing just how valuable content is…
Not only will Yahoo!’s stock outperform Google’s in 2007, but Eric Schmidt will become the poster boy for arrogant new media management.
Disclosure: we work via partnerships with most of the companies mentioned above, News Corp. was my former employer and I own shares in YHOO.
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