Prime Media Group’s online division ‘iPRIME’ today announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Yahoo!7 which will leverage the outstanding content and features of Yahoo!7 and the distribution and brand strength of Prime in regional Australia.
The agreement will in many respects mirror in the online space the strong relationship Prime Television enjoys with its broadcast partner, the Seven Network.
From August, the iPRIME sites will feature Yahoo!7 Search, Maps and Answers content, which will complement iPRIME’s localised content in regional markets. Yahoo!7 will also feature selected iPRIME regional news content.
“This strategic partnership extends our already strong broadcast relationship with the Seven Network and will give our online audience greater depth of services and content. The partnership with iPRIME provides Yahoo!7 with a broader and deeper footprint in regional Australia,” Prime Media Group CEO Warwick Syphers said.
“Regional Australia represents one third of the population and is a collection of vibrant and engaged local communities. iPRIME has been well received in regional communities who are active users of online.”
Yahoo!7 CEO Rohan Lund said: “The strategic partnership with iPRIME allows Yahoo!7 to continue our strategy of building Australia’s largest partnership network, and further extends our reach within regional Australia as we power iPRIME to deliver Yahoo!7’s popular Combo Search, Maps and Answers products.
“This is also great news for our regional users as we further demonstrate our commitment to providing the most extensive online news coverage through the integration and localisation of iPRIME’s local news content."
The iPRIME and Yahoo!7 sales teams will remain separate but seek to broaden their advertising sales efforts in metropolitan and regional markets respectively.
iPRIME currently has web sites focused on the regional centres of Canberra, Wollongong and Newcastle and over the next two months will launch additional sites in regional NSW and Victoria. These sites will be aggressively promoted across Prime Television’s broadcast assets. All the sites will feature the Yahoo!7 tools and content.
“The integration of Yahoo!7’s tools, iPRIME’s content and strong on-air promotion, especially during Prime’s coverage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will provide a unique opportunity to grow traffic and unique browsers,” Syphers said.
Prime’s licensed television viewing area covers Northern and Southern New South Wales, Victoria, the Gold Coast area of eastern Queensland and all of regional Western Australia. Prime also operates a network of 10 radio stations in regional Queensland.
iPRIME commenced in September 2007 to provide further interaction between Prime and its regional viewers with hyper-localised content and services.
The sites offer regional Australia greater online access to relevant local information, such as weather, local sports, jobs, activities, events, news (including video), shopping, dining and entertainment and interviews with local celebrities.
[release from Access PR]