ESPN.com Drops Yahoo for Quigo - Advertising Age, 9/7/06

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Advertising Age, 9/7/06
ESPN.com Drops Yahoo for Quigo

Unit With Ties to Disney Will Provide Contextual Ads for Sports Site

By Gavin O'Malley

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Yahoo's contextual ad network is losing a prized relationship with ESPN.com, which has reached an exclusive deal with contextual ad firm Quigo. Quigo will now provide ESPN's site with private versions of its Ad Sonar technology platform, allowing the sports publisher to auction sponsored links to its advertisers.

Dealing directly
While Yahoo and Google continue to increase the size of their search and contextual ad networks, some publishers are opting for companies that allow them to deal directly with advertisers.

"We've been told by many advertisers that they'd like to buy ESPN.com directly rather than through a network," an ESPN.com spokesman said. "Now we can leverage our brand with an ESPN ad auction, which gives advertisers more options than they had before."

Full Story: ESPN.com Drops Yahoo for Quigo