Comcast, the second largest broadband ISP in U.S., is in talks to use Microsoft’s search services on its broadband portal, a sign the cable titan isn’t happy about its current search deal with Google, reports WSJ, citing sources. The Comcast-Google deal is till the end of this year.
Comcast thinks it should get a larger search ad rev share, and is also is unhappy about other terms of the deal. The company gets about $70 million in shared revenues through the Google deal, but wants $100 million, the story says. The site gets about 15 million visitors a month, and is one of the biggest non-Google sources of search queries handled by Google. Comcast is now talking to Microsoft, though this is just talks and could still renew Google’s deal after renegotiation.
Interesting this: The cable company is looking to expand its other online ad revenues, and is talking to Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL about a three-year deal to sell 80 percent of the advertising on Comcast.net, the story says. It is holding on to the other 20 percent and advertising on its other sites to help it build an in-house broadband sales staff.