Verizon, Hearst Strike Deal to Create Video for Millennials

Verizon Hearst Media Partners will begin this spring with two channels RatedRed.com, which will feature lifestyle content aimed at young people who live in the "heartland," and Seriously.TV, a comedic news network, the companies said in a statement. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

The channels will be distributed across Verizon's mobile video service, go90, among other platforms, according to the statement.

The venture brings together two companies that have been investing in digital outlets experimenting with new formats as the media business evolves. Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, started go90, a free mobile video service with content aimed at teens and millennials that uses AOL's ad-insertion technology. Hearst, the closely held publisher of Cosmopolitan and Esquire magazines which owns stakes in the cable-TV networks ESPN and A+E, has invested in digital brands including Vice Media, AwesomenessTV and BuzzFeed.

"It's the dawn of a new era of video brands for the next generation of viewers," Neeraj Khemlani, co-president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, said in the statement.

The channels' introduction are timed to coincide with NewFronts, an annual event for advertisers and media buyers, according to the statement.

© 2016 Bloomberg L.P.