AOL Lands 450+ Million New Viewers In Microsoft Video Distribution Deal

AOL original series “The Restart Project” stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Tracy Anderson

Today, AOL announced a portion of its library of nearly 900,000 videos as well as original series and 15 channels will be available on Microsoft video platforms including MSN, and Bing Apps on Windows and Windows Phone. The video distribution deal, set to launch this summer, will give AOL broad access Microsoft’s audience. Microsoft claims MSN alone has an audience of 450 million unique visitors each month.

In March, AOL ranked third behind Google and Facebook in US unique video viewers with 69.4 million according to comScore. The company’s brands including HuffPost Live, TechCrunch and Moviefone and partners such as TMZ and ESPN will be included in the distribution deal.

Both Microsoft and AOL will be debuting original content to ad buyers at the Digital NewFronts in New York next week.

AOL has made significant commitments to be a leading player in online video. Last year, AOL launched 15 new shows featuring stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Hank Azaria and partnered with Nielsen with the aim of helping media buyers compare digital video to TV.

Re/Code reports that Microsoft will sell most of the ads and the companies will split ad revenues.

This is not the first time the Microsoft and AOL have teamed up in an ad deal. In 2012, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo entered a partnership to cross-sell display ads in an effort to compete better against Google and Facebook.