DBG Doubles Down on Syndication

The company has acquired Digital Sports Ventures, a firm that syndicates college sports highlights from major conferences like the Big East and Big Ten to a host of newspapers, including The Seattle Times and The Detroit News, as well as multiple sports fan blogs. That move comes on the heels of DBG’s introduction of Content Library Platform, a syndication platform aimed at providing mid-and long-tail publishers with more monetizable content. The syndication push also helps DBG unearth more premium inventory to package with its original Web series, like the Kiefer Sutherland vehicle The Confession. DBG will be able to sell pre-roll ads across the sites carrying the college sports clips.

It also theoretically helps the company eschew its reliance on selling other sites’ inventory — and help distinguish it from other video ad networks in a crowded space. DBG seems now to be competing more with companies like AOL’s 5min and Grab Networks than video networks like Tremor Video.

“This allows DBG to take its content to the next level,” said chief product officer Matthew Corbin. “This business is moving us toward controlling our own destiny. It provides us with more owned and operated content and technology.”

Corbin added, “DBG starts as content and ends as content.”