TV network in Overture web search deal

Television network NBC is expected to announce a two-year partnership with Overture Services for sponsored search today, the latest web publisher to lace query results with ads.

Seeking to capitalise on web search, NBC said it has started using new technology to power search on NBC.com and BravoTv.com. That technology, provided by SLI Systems, is designed to learn from user queries and deliver more relevant results to visitors over time, NBC said.

Under its Overture deal, NBC will display the company's pay-per-click text ads in a specially marked "sponsored" section atop site results. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Stephen Andrade, NBC's vice president of interactive development, said in a statement: "We are confident that the unsurpassed relevance and depth of Overture's commercial search listings, combined with SLI's unique Learning Search technology will match our users with exactly what they are searching for."

NBC joins a raft of net publishers including CNN and NYPost to retool their web search as its advertising component proves to be a lucrative business. Search engine marketing will be worth about $1.6bn this year, according to estimates from Jupiter Research.

For Overture, the deal gives it another sizable distribution partner as the company faces increased competition from rival Google. The company recently lost a distribution deal with Lycos to Google.

Both Overture and Google let marketers bid for placement in search results related to specific keywords; and marketers pay only when users click on their listings. Overture and Google distribute those results to web partners and they split fees the collect from advertisers with those partners.

In addition to Overture listings, NBC's new search platform will feature content from the TV network's entertainment content and retail opportunities from NBC.

NBC exercised some business nepotism in its search deal too. The company is using patented site search technology from SLI, of which it owns 20 per cent. SLI, whose technology used to power search for former NBC properties NBCi and Snap.com, operates "Site Search," which tracks user behaviour to deliver more relevant results.

Stefanie Olsen writes for CNET News.com