PlanetOut to Distribute Q Television Video

Gay and lesbian media company PlanetOut Inc. will distribute highlights of video from the Q Television (QTN) satellite network, under the terms of a deal announced today.

Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, but Mark Elderkin, president of PlanetOut, told ClickZ, “The value for our company is quality content that we can sell advertising against. The value for the producer is distribution and access to an audience they could otherwise not reach.”

The deal will give PlanetOut more video inventory on its PlanetOut Video broadband service, which launched in September. The company offers :15 pre-roll spots and sponsorships of its video content. Ads can be targeted by content, by gender, by age, by location, and using behavioral criteria.

Elderkin says the company has sold mostly in-banner video ads thus far, but it’s ramping up its in-stream inventory to meet demand from advertisers.

“For 2006, as we book new business for next year, we’re seeing more and more requests from the agencies we work with to include that ,” he said. “We’re doing all we can to grow our video archives.”

The QTN video will consist of five- to 15-minute highlights from news, talk and variety shows, including a morning talk show called “Brunch;” the celebrity entertainment talk show “On Q Live;” and “QTN World News.”

PlanetOut also distributes video clips from here!TV and Sundance Channel. It’s considering developing original video in-house and Webcasting user-generated content.

“We don’t produce anything in-house today but it’s something we’re evaluating,” Elderkin said.

The video initiative isn’t the only move PlanetOut is making to incorporate traditional media into its portfolio of ad offerings. The company recently purchased LPI media, whose properties include print publications “The Advocate,” “OUT,” “The OUT Traveler,” and “HIVPlus,” along with their Web site counterparts.