Google Announces TV Ads Trial

In a press release, Google announced that they’ve teamed up with EchoStar and Astound Cables to deliver “Google TV” ads to the homes across 13 million-subscribers. The ads shown will be relevant to its viewers and will be targeted based on region, demographics and the content playing on the TV. Advertisers who are willing to show their ads on TV can bid on the ad slots through the familiar AdWords interface.

Mostly, viewers tune away from ads or don’t watch it fully. To help advertisers overcome this problem, they will only have to pay, if the ad was actually viewed by the audience (somewhat like the CPM model). Based on the information aggregated by set-top-boxes, Google will provide crude stats like how many times the ad was actually viewers. Google will also create a marketplace for advertisers who can’t create their own commercials.

Ambitious venture into TVs by Google, but Google is a search engine company, not an advertising company. Their simultaneous entry into Print, Radio and TV advertising makes me feel that they are going to turn into an advertising company. Perhaps, they should focus more on improving their existing products.

Read the Press Release

This post was published by on April 4, 2007

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.everydayweekender.com Everyday Weekender

    i think it would be interesting to see..

  • http://www.avirtualexit.com Gili

    I personally think that Google is a sort of advertising company.
    At the end of the day, what they do is leverage their excellent search engine capabilities to deliver highly targeted advertising.
    All Google main products support in one way or other that strategy.

    Your thoughts?

    Gili

  • http://www.technospot.net/blogs/ Ashish Mohta

    I doubt this will be really Successful.Images are hard part where people can make money out of it.Same goes for videos

  • http://apexad.net apex

    I disagree with this. Google makes their money on AdWords and featured ads in search results, so yes, they are a search engine company, but they are only profitable because of ads, thus they are an Advertising company.

    I welcome a move to television, as I think TV ads effect my purchase decisions far more then Internet ads do.

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Gili: Yeah, I agree with your point.

    Ashish: Oh yeah.. only if it were CPC, but TV ads are somewhat like CPM

    Apex: That’s true because TV has a greater influence on our lives. Far more than Internet

  • http://www.davidesalerno.net/2007/04/04/dalla-tv-al-web-andata-e-ritorno/ Davide Salerno » Dalla TV al web: andata e ritorno

    [...] qualche giorno si parla con insistenza del fatto che Google lancerà a breve i suoi “spot pubblicitari” anche [...]

  • http://spotgeek.com/geekbytes/ knight17

    They suppliment content also.Examples include Google News, Groups, Blogger (not forced)etc

    I personally think that Google is a sort of advertising company.

  • http://www.technospot.net/blogs/ Ashish Mohta

    @Knight: Its business , They wont get anything unless they have adds.Simply making search engine..there is no benefit