As advertisers raise high hopes following US telco Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo, Seven West - which has a joint venture in Australia - is watching and waiting.

Hopes have been raised of stronger competition for Google and Facebook - which together take three-quarter's of America's digital advertising spend - following a possible merger between Verizon's Yahoo and AOL units.

A statement by Seven West Media - which owns Perth-based West Australian Newspapers and the Seven TV network - says the and very successful longstandingYahoo7 joint venture is characterised by specialities that each side brings to the business. This includes Seven's created and acquired premium content supported by powerful promotion from Seven and other media assets, combined with Yahoo's technology and platform.

With "various options" under the joint venture agreement, Seven West Media has until final completion of a transaction to consider which one or combination "as may be negotiated with the new owners" to go for. For the "six to nine months" this may take, it is business as usual at Yahoo7 in Australia and New Zealand.

Seven West says it has dramatically expanded its digital products, audience and investments "beyond the joint venture" and now leads the Australian market in the creation and distribution of digital premium video content beyond broadcast television. Unique content for social, ecommerce and mobile platforms includes the premium '7Tennis' product for the Australian Open Series, and next week, it will launch an 'Olympics on 7' app for the Rio Olympic Games. Seven live streams all programmes and channels, and stablemate Pacific has housed its digital publishing consumer brands internally.

"Seven West Media has a number of positive options that will define its future development and success in digital media, building on its already highly successful development over the past few years," says the statement.

Pictured: Seven's Plus7 TV channel on Yahoo!7