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February 1, 2007

Yahoo said yesterday that it will build one-hundred individual websites in 2007 that would pull together content from Yahoo's sprawling array of online properties in the entertainment field.

Yahoo's new iniative, dubbed Brand Universe, is intended to create online destinations that will draw large audiences around individual movies, TV shows, concert bands, celebrities, singers, actors, games and other types of entertainment.

"Overall, Yahoo has a wealth of entertainment content. However, finding the material about a specific attraction isn't always intuitive," said Vince Broady, head of entertainment and youth at Yahoo.

"We don't connect the dots for our users around those brands," Broady said. "Brand Universe is designed to fix that problem. What we are really trying to do is create environments where fans of brands can hang out when they are online."

The entertainment sites would also create windows where visitors could find out more about specific attractions and perhaps become fans, Broady said.

Yahoo has already designed a Brand Universe site around the Nintendo Wii, and on Tuesday it announced six more, which will be centered on Harry Potter; the video games "The Sims" and "Halo"; the television shows "The Office" and "Lost"; and Transformers, the toy line, television show, comic books and coming movie.

Other topics will be announced in the next few weeks, and all one-hundred sites will be introduced in 2007, Broady said.

Like much of Yahoo, Brand Universe sites will be supported by advertising, and Yahoo said it would discuss ways to share revenue with brand owners.

Broady acknowledged that there could be tensions with some content owners who were trying to create online destinations of their own.

Yahoo said it did not plan to ask permission from the owners before creating the sites, but would not proceed if the owners objected.

Broady said the company would be able to track the appeal of individual brands across the Yahoo network and share that information with their owners.

The Brand Universe announcement was part of a briefing Yahoo executives gave to reporters on the company's media group, based in Santa Monica, California, which has been criticized for lack of clear focus.

Lloyd Braun, the former ABC executive who ran the media group, left in Dec. 2006 during a company-wide revamping.

Company executives said traffic was up strongly across a broad range of Yahoo media properties, including news, videos, music, movies and games.

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Source: IHT.com