New York – At the 2014 Digital Content NewFronts on April 28, Yahoo! Inc. unveiled the first of its new original long-form shows, a new partnership with Live Nation for live streaming concerts, the all new Yahoo Travel digital magazine, and new advertising opportunities and measurement capabilities.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, CMO Kathy Savitt, and Ned Brody, head of Americas, presented Yahoo’s vision to make digital video more inspiring and entertaining for consumers and advertisers.
“We are in a time of rapid and dramatic change in how people read and view content online. Our goal is to not only enable the future but also to help invent it,” said Kathy Savitt, CMO of Yahoo. “Yahoo is focused on connecting artists, storytellers, great content producers and brands with the audiences they want – at scale, across devices, every single day.”
Yahoo announced the first two original comedies in its new line-up of long-form shows. The new shows will join the growing collection of award-winning comedy programming available on Yahoo. Each series will launch on Yahoo Screen next year and will deliver 30-minute episodes viewers can enjoy all at once on the Yahoo Screen mobile app, desktop, or in their living rooms on Apple TV and Roku.
From three-time Emmy nominee Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids, The Office),Other Space is a galactic adventure set in the early 22nd century, when the human race has mapped most of the known universe, failed to find alien life, and frankly gotten a little tired of the whole thing. A spaceship on a routine collection mission stumbles into the greatest discovery in history: an alternate universe, far stranger and way more dangerous than ours. Now the ship’s crew – a collection of overmatched rookies, feuding siblings, burned-out veterans and obsolete robots – has to explore this new universe to try and find a way back home alive. (8 half-hour episodes)
From hit TV executive producer Mike Tollin (One Tree Hill, Smallville, and Varsity Blues) and two-time Emmy nominated director Bryan Gordon (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Party Down), Sin City Saints is an off-beat comedy set in the front office of a fictional pro basketball expansion team. The show will revolve around Jake Tullus, a Silicon Valley tycoon whose lifelong dream was to buy a pro basketball team but quickly finds he’s in over his head. The group he assembled won’t be much help. Sin City Saints will follow the triumphs, travails, and transgressions of Las Vegas’ first major league sports franchise. (8 half-hour episodes)
Katie Couric also unveiled two new shows launching this summer. First, a series calledWorld 3.0, featuring the disruptors, scientists, builders, innovators and social entrepreneurs who are “hacking” life as we know it. The second is a series called Now I Get It, which aims to help people better understand the news drivers and issues of the day by giving them a short, visual explanation in a shareable video.
Savitt also announced a new initiative that will bring millions of viewers live programming and unscripted moments across music, sports and entertainment: Yahoo Live. As part of the initiative, Yahoo will launch a new Live Nation channel on Yahoo Screen. Beginning this summer, Yahoo and Live Nation will begin producing the largest collection of U.S. concert live streams on the web: one live concert, every day, 365 days a year.
The Live Nation Channel presents new ways for brands to reach music fans through sponsorships that enhance the viewer experience with content such as exclusive interviews, backstage sneak peeks and even special performances. Kellogg’s, one of the world’s leading CPG brands, was the first to announce a sponsorship with Yahoo and Live Nation.
