Friday, May 09, 2008
Yahoo! Has 4 Million Daily Views of New "Primetime in No Time"....OMG: Yahoo! Readies Celebrity Gossip Video Show

SANTA MONICA -- Yahoo!'s daily digest of highlights of the previous night's network prime time programming is turning into a hit. Primetime In No Time, launched in March, had 4 million daily streams last week, Beet.TV has learned.

On Wednesday afternoon, I visited the the Yahoo! entertainment complex in Santa Monica for a sit down chat with Karen Gilford, VP and General Manager of Entertainment. We talked about the strategy behind original programming on Yahoo!

She told me in this interview that Yahoo! is producing a new celebrity gossip show to accompany its OMG celebrity site. It is expected launch later this year.

Yahoo! Finance's Tech Ticker with Henry Blodget, Sarah Lacy and Aaron Task might not as big as "Primetime," but it has developed a very respectable audience of 100,000 to 200,000 daily streams, a Yahoo! spokeswoman told Beet.TV

Update: 5/11 Verne Kopytoff writes in today's San Francisco Chronicle that Yahoo! could bounce back from the Microsoft takeover bid and successfully stand alone if it executes a successful portal strategy. Video is surely one area where they can grow.

-- Andy Plesser