Web media company Yahoo Inc. wants to lower expectations for how much original programming it will produce as part of its online information and entertainment offerings, the company said Thursday.
Yahoo will not do a string of one-off projects, focusing instead on combining program content with licensed, user-generated and other content, Yahoo spokeswoman Joanna Stevens said.
Speculation about the company’s plans to deliver its own programming has swirled since Yahoo, which is headed by former Hollywood studio chief Terry Semel, hired Lloyd Braun in late 2004. Braun is the former chairman of the entertainment division at Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network.
Among the projects put on ice by Yahoo is “The Runner,” a reality program Braun brought over from ABC, according to published reports.
Stevens declined to give specifics on the number or names of productions that were planned or are being dropped.
“We’re focusing on tying all the different pieces together. We won’t pursue a project unless we think there is an opportunity to make a sustainable business of it,” Stevens said.
“I think they may just be trying to ratchet the expectations down,” Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said of Yahoo’s plans.
Internet gossip sites recently have suggested that Braun was leaving the company due to differences with Semel, something Braun and other company executives dismissed in an article printed in the New York Times Thursday.
The New York Times cited Braun saying that Yahoo would embark on only a handful of new ventures this year, not the dozens he had promised, and that his early expectations for what he could do at Yahoo had been overly grand.
“Nothing significant has really changed. We have lots of concepts in development, some will get green-lit and some won’t,” said Stevens.
Yahoo executives have repeatedly said they do not intend to recreate television on the Web, envisioning instead a new entertainment venue that plays up the interactivity of the Internet.
Online companies like Yahoo and Google Inc. have been aggressively pursuing video content deals — from licensing agreements to user submissions — in a bid to expand advertising and other business opportunities.
But investors have become concerned that the red-hot growth fueling those companies is cooling.
“It is not easy to figure out what you do here. Nobody knows the right way to do it,” Bernoff said.
Meanwhile, network reality television show producer Mark Burnett is playing the field.
Burnett was the producer of “The Runner” at Yahoo and has done marketing tie-ins for his “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” reality television shows with the Internet company.
He recently signed a deal to produce an online treasure hunt series called “Gold Rush” with Time Warner Inc. Internet unit AOL.
Yahoo is developing its own interactive series called “Treasure Hunt,” reportedly with Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg.
