Yahoo! Dives Into Online Video Again With All New Original Content

By Christophor Rick for ReelSEO.com

Yahoo! was in online video, then they were out, then they were in and then out…and now, starting in about a month’s time, they’re all in again? It would seem so. Aside from being named in the Hulu bidding of late, they are also apparently shopping around a whole set of original online video content (says Variety). So it seems that the zig-zaggy path of Yahoo! and online video is once again on a positive vector.

Wow, I just totally had some deja vu, like I had already written this article. Well I probably wrote something similar what with Yahoo’s historical flip-flopping take on online video.

Anyway, this time round, they’ve rounded up some star power in the likes of Morgan Spurlock, Niecy Nash and Judy Greer. Honestly, I only know of Spurlock.

Yahoo! is putting some twists into their initiative this time as well. They have stated that they are aiming at women, will market the ‘first run’ times slots of the shows (much like TV does) and will not be generating branded content as much as it will be ad-powered or have some small integration with specific sponsors.

The October lineup of shows is designed to hit upon the sites most popular topics, including things like relationships, cooking and staying fit. They are aiming to tie together their network of information websites and partner sites to this new content and in turn push consumers toward other video content on those same sites. So it’s like a synergistic endeavor to trap viewers inside the Yahoo! network and generate page views as well as help them discover further information and content of interest to them.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s wrong…I think it’s brilliant! Tangle web visitors up in your own sticky web, drive more page views, video views, display ad impressions and time on site? Yeah, I absolutely can see where they are going with that and it’s a model that many of us should probably be adopting.

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