MUMBAI: Now this is what is called taking cross-media advertising to a new level. Discovery Communications and the New York Times are reportedly planning to soon offer a consolidated advertising package wherein the placement of an ad on one of the Discovery channels will entitle the advertiser to one in the newspaper.

Strategies on innovative avenues to leverage each other's brands to common advantage have gained further impetus following NYT's recent $100 million investment in Discovery Civilisation.

The renaming and rebranding of Discovery Civilization with a name that incorporates some aspect of NYT's name and logo will likely form a part of this deal, emonline.com has reported.

For Discovery, such deals are integral to its business plans. Unlike other multinetwork media companies, where cross-platform deals represent at best a small fraction of total upfront business, what Discovery calls "integrated portfolio" sales accounted for 75 per cent of all upfront agreements, Bill McGowan, executive VP, general manager, US ad sales and global integrated partnerships, Discovery Communications, was quoted by emonline.com as saying.