Silverman's new IAC startup, Electus, will provide original video content for the site, BoomTown's Kara Swisher reports. Yahoo will sell branded advertisement for the programming.
Joanne Bradford, Yahoo's SVP of North American revenue, told Swisher that advertisers have been looking for opportunities like this.
"It is an area of great interest," Bradford said. "And Yahoo, with its huge traffic, is a leader in selling premium ads on the Web."
CEO Carol Bartz said in December that video is a "hot seller" for Yahoo, which has the second-highest number of unique viewers for video in the U.S., after YouTube.
Silverman, who departed NBC last year amidst negative publicity and falling ratings, has expressed an interest in making "online programming in episodic style," but this type of content has yet to truly take off, Swisher says.
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— Erin Barker, Digital Content Reporter, Cable Digital News