AOL is getting serious about developing its video content platform and exploring materials that will propel their ideals to draw attention from viewers and advertisers. Following the announcement of its partnership with IAC’s Electus production studio, as well as video producer Next New Networks, AOL now taps the resources and expertise of Vuguru—the company behind the successful digital series “Prom Queen.”

The goal of this joint venture is to gain balance from both the professional aspect and user-gen part.  It’s a move MySpace made during the first hopeful years of web media.  We’ll see how they fare with AOL’s new networked media approach.

“The Internet’s next growth phase will be powered by professional, high-quality, story-driven content, and the key to success is delivering that content to as many users as possible.” This was a statement released by Vuguru’s Head Michael Eisner said immediately after the deal was inked.

A provision inside the contract between Vuguru and AOL includes a half-dozen video series that will be provided by the former to the latter. This high-quality and scripted web series will be released early part of 2011. AOL has been capitalizing on its media arm and has also pushed for improvements within journalism. They recently acquired  a number of web properties to solidify news offerings daily.

Another AOL adventure was the launch of Wow! Deal of the Day for Washington, DC that will be available in Wow.com.

This was further explained by Bud Rosenthal, the General Manager for AOL Paid Services. He was quoted, “Wow.com is a win-win for consumers and local businesses,” “Consumers get great savings and businesses enjoy a great way to acquire new, loyal customers on top of unparalleled brand exposure.”

Moving into the local deals arena means AOL is looking towards highly personalized data delivery, aggregating based on parameters like location.  This hyper-local approach is something mega media companies will need to do–it’s a trend particularly rampant in the print media’s digital conversion.