AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Alley Insider

They might be distracted, but Yahoo’s video sales team is open for business. Rebecca Paoletti, director of video strategy, says sales are brisk. It’s the third year that Yahoo (YHOO) has held video sales talks with advertisers in parallel with TV’s “upfront” sales season.

Meetings with advertisers started this week, and Paoletti said judging from their plans, she expects to sell 50% of all of Yahoo’s video ad inventory in advance this spring, up from 30% last year.

Paoletti’s pitch to advertisers: Buy now or take your chances. Yahoo and other portals sold out of video ad inventory last year, (CBS and Hulu have also made this claim), so buying during upfronts should guarantee you the eyeballs you want.

That scarcity doesn’t mean that online video revenue is skyrocketing. In part it means that there aren’t that many viewers watching ad-supported video (YouTube doesn’t count, because Google doesn’t really sell ads for its dog-on-skateboard stuff). And in part it means that advertisers aren’t loading up video with ads, becuase they’re afraid the ads will drive viewers away.

Yahoo says it is getting ad rates for online video that compare favorably to TV: $25 CPM, on average, or higher for targeted ads. We’ve heard the same from other publishers, as well as some complaining from advertisers that online video has gotten too expensive.

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