AOL unit to serve up ads in new Web video venture

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet services company AOL said on Friday its Advertising.com unit would help serve and manage advertising on a new online video venture being built by News Corp. and NBC Universal.

News Corp. and NBC announced last week the creation of a free site featuring full-length movies and television shows to launch this summer in a challenge to Google Inc.'s popular video sharing site YouTube.

NBC and News Corp. said they had signed up three of Google's largest rivals, including Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, to distribute their programming and offer a major Internet advertising vehicle.

Advertising.com's technology will manage display and video advertising for the new site, which has yet to be named, as well as ads inserted into an embedded media player to be used by the venture's distribution partners.

The new venture plans to build its own advertising sales team, with ad revenue shared between the owners of the programming and their Internet distribution partners.

Advertising.com will also help generate revenue from display and video advertising space that is not utilized by the venture's own sales team.

NBC is controlled by General Electric Co. with a minority stake held by Vivendi.