Comcast Invests $200M BuzzFeed, Olympics Partnership Likely

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Comcast‘s quest for a younger online audience is coming to fruition. It’s NBCUniversal subsidiary just agreed to make a $200 million equity investment in BuzzFeed — the ultra-clickable news/content platform famous for headlines like Can You Tell if This Person Just Pooped or Orgasmed and 17 Celebrity Sex Dream Horror Stories That’ll Give You Nightmares.

Call it click-bait if you want, but BuzzFeed reaches over 200 million monthly unique visitors and garners 1.5 billion monthly video views. And it’s quickly ramping up its news coverage in an apparent effort to gain more credibility.

In a statement, BuzzFeed’s Executive Chairman Kenneth Lerer said the companies will explore strategic partnerships regarding television content, movies and the Olympics.

“BuzzFeed and NBCUniversal will be great strategic partners and we both have a lot to offer the other,” he said. The deal now values BuzzFeed at $1.5 billion, according to several news sites.

Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal praised BuzzFeed for building “an exceptional global company that harmonizes technology, data and superior editorial abilities to create and share content in innovative ways.”

“They reach a massive, loyal audience and have proven to be among the most creative, popular and influential new media players,” said Burke.

Just days ago, NBCUniversal invested $200 million in Vox Media, owner of online sites like SB Nation, The Verge, Eater, Curbed, and Re/code. It previously had a 14 percent stake in Vox.

NBCUniversal has been examining ways to branch out to a younger audience in an era when less and less young people are watching traditional TV. Joe Spinelli, a Philadelphia-based venture investor and advisor told me recently that a deal with BuzzFeed is “a really good opportunity for NBCUniversal to gain not only highly engaged, younger eyeballs, but also to continue its mission of pushing content everywhere its end users have a presence.”