Xbox Live to sport ESPN content

ESPN is the latest media company bringing its content to the mostly young male aud of Microsoft's Xbox Live.

Disney-owned sports net is bringing a broad array of sporting events and programming to the service, through which users can download video onto the Xbox 360 vidgame console.

Content going to Xbox Live includes college football and basketball games, Summer X Games, "The World Series of Poker" and videogame reality show "Madden Nation."

All of the programming also is available for download on Apple's iTunes. A small portion of the video, including NCAA games, will be available to download in high definition via Xbox Live, which is the only digital download service with high-def content.

"Establishing this relationship with Microsoft on Xbox 360 provides an innovative way to reach our target demographic," said Matt Murphy, senior veep of digital video distribution for Disney and ESPN Media Networks.

ESPN sibling the Walt Disney Studios started making its movies available for digital rental on Xbox Live this summer. Other media companies on the service include CBS, MTV Networks, New Line, Paramount and Warner Bros.

Microsoft Plans to Become a Media Company

Within the next four to 10 years, says Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, as much as 25% of the software giant's revenues are likely to come from advertising. Microsoft can already deliver advertising to new platforms such as in-game promotions and mobile-phone campaigns.

Business Week has more.

Microsoft to Battle Google in Advertising

Brian McAndrews, the head of Microsoft's recently acquired Internet advertising company aQuantive, says he intends to beat Google's DoubleClick. Microsoft aims to provide advertisers with a log of all the online locations where people see ads before going to advertisers' Web sites.

New York Times has more.

Microsoft Wins aQuantive with $6 Billion Cash Bid

Per a recent commitment to broaden its digital advertising horizons, Microsoft today agreed to purchase online ad firm aQuantive for $6 billion, Internet News Reports.

At $66.50 per share at an 85 percent premium over aQuantive's Thursday closing price, the $6 billion purchase represents Microsoft's most ambitious bid to date.

Microsoft has stated it plans to use aQuantive's myriad assets to develop "new media" ad systems like cross media planning, VOD and IPTV.

From inception, aQuantive has seen significant growth spurts, having evolved into three primary brands: DRIVEpm, an ad service that matches ad campaigns with published content; Avenue A | Razorfish, a digital marketing consulting service; and Atlas, the foundation for the Media Console ad platform.

aQuantive is expected to add thrust to Microsoft's AdCenter, which serves approximately 500 users a month but remains a small contender to Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

The deal is expected to finalize in Q1 of 2008.

CFO Chris Liddel noted the online ad market, worth about $40 billion at present, is expected to grow 20 percent per year until 2010.

Microsoft to launch mobile ads

Seattle Times reports that Microsoft will launch mobile ads through its Windows Live properties, following an announcement Thursday that it will acquire ScreenTonic, a French company based in Paris.

ScreenTonic works to launch advertising campaigns in partnership with wireless carriers in Europe and Web-site publishers engineered specifically for mobile phones.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The expertise gained from ScreenTonic will help Microsoft commercially launch banner and text ads on Windows Live for mobile properties in the not-too-distant future, said Matt Champagne, Microsoft's director of mobile-product management for the online-services group.

Last year, he said, the group conducted trials in the U.S. and Japan for display advertising on Windows Live for mobile. Group members determined that taking knowledge they already had from advertising on the PC desktop and applying it to mobile didn't always work.

"There are unique things in selling it and unique things in fulfilling it on the mobile," he said. "These guys have a great sales force and ad expertise, and can accelerate us into the market."

ScreenTonic's 43 employees will continue to be based in Paris, he said, but with the acquisition, the company will enter the U.S. and other markets.

Mobile advertising is starting to gain attention as other companies in the U.S., including Boston-based ThirdScreenMedia and San Mateo, Calif.-based Admob, build mobile-advertising networks.

Although it's early, Champagne said mobile phones could have a more valuable audience than computers do because cellphones are more personal devices.

"The mobile advertising piece has been talked about for years, and now it's more mainstream and becoming part of media budgets. We want to be on the forefront of that," Champagne said.
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Neil Strother, an analyst with JupiterResearch, said there are no leaders yet in mobile advertising as companies try to figure out the landscape.

"Microsoft doesn't want to get left out at this juncture," he said. "In fact, this might put them a little ahead in Europe."