Yahoo unveils original online shows

Yahoo on Monday unveiled original online shows and new advertising options as it continued a long-running attempt to evolve into an Internet venue for premier content. Yahoo used an advertising-focused Digital Content NewFronts gathering in New York City to trumpet two comedy programs, a partnership with Live Nation to stream concerts, an online Travel magazine, and new advertising capabilities. "Our goal is to not only enable the future but also to help invent it," Yahoo chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt said in a release. "Yahoo is focused on connecting artists, storytellers, great content producers and brands with the audiences they want -- at scale, across devices, every single day." An "Other Space" science fiction comedy will center on a spaceship crew winding up in an alternate universe in the early 22nd Century while "Sin City Saints" tells the story of a Silicon Valley tycoon who buys a Las Vegas pro-basketball team. The new shows will launch on Yahoo Screen next year and be viewable on mobile devices as well as desktop computers or through Apple TV or Roku set-top boxes. And mid-year, Yahoo will being streaming live US concerts daily at a new Live Nation Channel. Yahoo also showed off new advertising tactics for its log-in page and its expanding line of digital magazines, the latest of which will be devoted to travel. When people log into Yahoo on desktop or tablet computers, they will be shown 15-second video ads. The California-based Internet firm said it has partnered with industry-tracker comScore to provide advertisers with metrics regarding digital marketing campaigns. The pioneering Internet search engine has been working to re-create itself as an online venue for premier and personalized digital content since being eclipsed by Google.