Take one for the team

As the result of a freshly-inked relationship, AOL Video and AOL Sports shall now serve ESPN video content. These will include game highlights, sporting events coverage and ESPN's original online programming.

According to ESPN, users on ESPN.com watched videos in over 1.2 billion instances in 2007, a 54 percent increase over '06, reports MediaPost.

AOL will be the first portal to carry ESPN content. In a similar deal made last year, it negotiated rights to syndicate video content from ABC.

Videos from ESPN and ABC — which are both owned by Disney — now appear on dedicated video players in AOL video. They are also searchable on AOL's Truveo-powered video search site.

Some weeks ago, ESPN made headlines with its decision to shaft third-party ad networks.

AOL seeks to become a niche content and online advertising contender. Relationships like these, coupled with its recent surprise purchase of Bebo, bring it closer to realizing that goal. It also helps that the ongoing drama of Microhoo, and Google's DoubleClick trimming, keep the competitive spotlight off the former subscription-based service.