Yahoo And ABC Announce An Expanded Partnership, Including A “Good Morning America” Deal

Yahoo and ABC (Disney/ABC Television Group) announced this morning an expansion of their partnership first established in 2011, which will see the two companies further integrating each others’ content on their respective properties. For Yahoo, that means access to a variety of clips from popular ABC television shows like “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” for example, which will be available on Yahoo Screen and Yahoo TV. Meanwhile, ABC’s “Good Morning America” will begin featuring Yahoo’s magazine content in a segment on its show, as well as feature other Yahoo properties, like Flickr and Tumblr, in weather reports and GMA’s “Social Square” pieces, respectively.

The Yahoo-driven segment on GMA called “Yahoo Your Day” begins on March 16th, and will include participation from Yahoo editors and staff, like Style editor-in-chief Joe Zee, Yahoo Beauty editor-in-chief Bobbi Brown, Yahoo Health editor-in-chief Michele Promaulayko and Yahoo Food editor-in-chief Kerry Diamond, the company explains this morning in a brief announcement.

Meanwhile, Yahoo News and ABC News will also expand their collaboration, teaming up on major events like the forthcoming 2016 presidential elections, among other things. ABC News content will also be featured more prominently across Yahoo’s properties, which is expected to result in a doubling of traffic. Content from Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric will also be distributed across ABC News, Yahoo says. That latter item is noteworthy, as it seems to indicate that the prior rumors about Couric’s return to NBC will not end up panning out.

Couric may also end up contributing to ABC in other ways, including on pieces that appear on “Nightline,” as well as original specials, Variety notes.

The ABC TV show clips provided to Yahoo will come from top ABC shows like “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “Dancing with the Stars.” These are already rolling out as of today, as with this Kimmel clip that’s live now on Yahoo Screen, for example.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently referred to video as being one of the company’s key growth areas, alongside mobile, native ads, and social. “Video is incredibly important as we look at how to reinvent our large legacy display business for the future,” she said in January. “Video is key, because it is an essential and familiar way for marketers to deliver their messages.”