BuzzFeed. Image: Roman Tiraspolsky/Shutterstock
BuzzFeed’s partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal has strengthened after the latter put up another $200m, doubling its total investment in the website.
NBCUniversal’s $200m investment in BuzzFeed this week is the latest in a series of similar moves from the company into online media.
Last summer it put its first $200m into BuzzFeed, while NBCUniversal has a separate $200m stake in Vox Media, the company behind titles such as The Verge, Recode and Polygon.
BuzzFeed’s valuation on the back of the current investment is around $1.7bn according to Reuters, with NBCUniversal’s added stake leading to a larger role in terms of online ads and videos.
“NBCU will take a larger role in selling ads for BuzzFeed with the ability to incorporate BuzzFeed’s inventory into its deals with advertisers; BuzzFeed will also have the same option to sell space on NBCU’s inventory to its advertisers,” Reuters reports.
“Additionally, BuzzFeed’s Swarm and NBCU’s Symphony ad products will be offered as one package to advertisers. Both Swarm and Symphony allow advertisers to run campaigns simultaneously across all of their respective properties.”
NBCUniversal owns major TV channels like Bravo, E! and MSNBC. Like most traditional media it is transforming itself to better cope with the digital age and arrest declining viewership among younger audiences who are spending more time online.
Its interest in BuzzFeed, and Vox Media for that matter, is largely to do with the demographic of readers each publisher has.
Last year it estimated that Vox Media has a strong audience of young readers, with 41pc of its 54.1m unique users aged between 18 and 34. BuzzFeed also has a large audience of younger readers, with 54pc of its 79.6m unique visitors aged between 18 and 34.
BuzzFeed sign outside its head office. Image: Roman Tiraspolsky/Shutterstock
