Viacom has signed a multi-year partnership with Yahoo that will have the search engine provide sponsored search and contextual advertising for Viacom's websites.

The partnership spans 33 of Viacom's websites including mtv.com, nickelodeon.com and comedycentral.com. The two might decide to expand the collaboration to a total of 140 websites. The company's websites in February attracted more than 90m unique visitors, ranking it as the web's 11th most popular destination.

The premium search results are delivered through Yahoo's Panama advertising platform that was launched earlier this year. The system mimics Google's AdWords system by ranking popular ads higher than ads that attract few user clicks. The system is deemed a succesful way to attract advertisers who create relevant text messages.

The agreement signals increasing support for Yahoo's online advertising technology as the company struggles to compete with Google.

Viacom last month filed a legal complaint against Google subsidiary Youtube, alleging that the video sharing services is "destroying enormous value" by letting users upload copyrighted videos.