Diggnation to Be Sponsored by Michelob

Starting today and for the next six weeks, Diggnation will be sponsored by Michelob. The deal is significant for the beer-infused show, which runs down the top stories on Digg.com each week, because it’s with such a major brand and it ties in so well to Diggnation’s content. The new episode is supposed to be released any minute now.

The sponsorship deal was reached after a year of conversation with Michelob’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, according to Brad Murphy, VP of ad sales for Revision3, which produces Diggnation. It includes a brewery tour by Diggnation’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht that will be hosted on Michelob’s site, as well as primo product placement: Rose and Albrecht — who normally drink beer when they film the show and have said tipsy relaxation is one of the most important factors in its success — will be drinking every type of beers in Michelob’s Craft sampler pack each week for the duration of the deal.

Diggnation receives about 200,000 viewers per episode, a number that has stayed consistent in recent years, but according to Murphy, actually reflects a combination of growth and more stringent measurement. He declined to disclose the amount of the Michelob sponsorship but said it was on par with other Diggnation deals.

Revision3 limits sponsorship to a few companies per episode of its 19 different series. While it works to make relevant deals on a show-by-show basis, at times it has also sold its entire network as a package. “We don’t want it to get like Nascar,” Murphy said.

Anheuser-Busch is also cutting deals with its other brands and other Revision3 shows. Becks will be sponsoring Tekzilla and Internet Superstar, among others.

Disclosure: Revision3 produces The GigaOM Show (which is on hiatus).