Fox Sports Digital and Sporting News Media "have struck a multiyear digital partnership that will create one of the most highly trafficked sports media entities in the industry," according to Eric Fisher of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. News, features and video content from each entity "will appear on the other's properties, and the two will jointly sell into a bundle of assets that includes FoxSports.com, Yardbarker, SportingNews.com, Goal.com, and Sporting News Media's widely syndicated ePlayer video service." The deal arrives as Fox Sports Digital is "ending its exclusive relationship with Microsoft's MSN portal after more than a decade." Fox and MSN will "continue to work together on some online traffic referral but on a much smaller and nonexclusive level." The combined entities "are projected to generate more than 65 million unique visitors a month," which would "generally" place the new joint listing behind only ESPN in monthly comScore rankings among U.S. sports sites. The new listing will begin appearing "as early as September." Both sides said that they "did not have concerns about potential audience confusion with the alliance of two consumer-facing sports media brands" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/28 issue). Fox Sports Digital Senior VP/Sales Marla Newman said that the new partnership "will be particularly useful during major sporting events like the NCAA's March Madness, where both parties aren't the official rights holder." She hopes that their larger combined audience will "give marketers an alternative option to place their campaigns" (ADWEEK.com, 7/28).
