The collaboration will increase NBC's digital presence as well as bolster its college and fantasy game coverage, while Yahoo will gain access NBC's video content, live sports coverage and big name television personalities.

The two companies will maintain separate websites and independent newsrooms, but will collaborate on big sports news stories as well as events coverage both online and on the air, the companies said in a statement late on Sunday.

Yahoo has looked to increase its involvement with television content, it announced a major content sharing deal for financial news with CNBC in June.

The sports news providers will also jointly develop made-for-web video programs that will appear on both Yahoo Sports and NBCSports.com as well as collaborate in how they provide advertising.

The alliance will include, Yahoo Sports, the Rivals Network, NBCSports.com, NBC Sports Regional Networks, Golf Channel.com, Rotoworld.com and Allisports.com. NBCSports.com will continue to provide sports content for NBCNews.com.

NBC Sports is part of NBC Universal Media, a unit of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Tej Sapru in Bangalore; Editing by Matt Driskill)

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