Good Morning Silicon Valley

Hard to say how much of this is a newly kindled love for “Panama,” Yahoo’s new ad system, and how much is a spiteful slap in Google’s face, but Viacom announced today that Yahoo will be the exclusive provider of search ads for 33 Viacom sites, including the online homes of MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. It’s a multi-year deal that could grow to include 140 more sites.

Viacom, you’ll recall, has a serious beef with Google over the posting of its copyrighted clips on YouTube and is currently suing the search sovereign for a cool $1 billion. (see “OK, we ask for a billion; just don’t do that Dr. Evil thing in court“). And in announcing the Viacom deal, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel couldn’t resist taking a shot: “Viacom is a global leader in entertainment that shares Yahoo’s commitment to connecting users to the content, products and services for which they are looking while respecting copyrights and other intellectual property rights at the same time.”

The exclusive deal has its concrete benefits, but its main value may be in the realm of perceptions. As Staci Kramer says at Paidcontent.org, “Yahoo’s Panama is a major step for the company’s future and is being watched carefully for glimmers of hope/signs of cracks. Every ‘name’ deal adds to the former; every deal lost adds to concerns that Panama is too late to help. Meanwhile, Viacom has to show meaningful digital progress, especially when it comes to ad revenue.” The chance to stick it to Google is just gravy.