Turner Broadcasting Signs One-Year Deal with Kaneva

Turner Broadcasting has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to try its hand at building virtual world spaces inside the Kaneva platform with each Turner-created space using an embedded video player to stream content. Kaneva integrated synchronized YouTube watching in June with virtual TVs. Combined with the fact that Kaneva and Turner are both headquartered out of Atlanta, and it makes for a solid match. Turner is expected to make the full announcement of the deal and discuss its virtual worlds strategy at Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, October 10-11, at the San Jose Convention Center.

Kaneva works to connect its users on both the 2D Web and the virtual world, so presumably Turner's content will work the same way. One of the first projects is apparently a Turner space that will work as a sort of portal, linking all of Turner's spaces as well as some of Kaneva's.

Turner is a division of Time Warner, which has been making some waves in virtual worlds from the top level. In July, Time Warner participated in a $30 million round of investment for online game developer Trion World Network. That looks to be part of a larger plan. Andrew Cleland of Time Warner Investments made it clear in September that virtual worlds make up one of the four online areas its looking to invest in with gaming occupying a space of its own.