Google Launches National TV-Ad-Sales Test on Echostar

[Paramvir]

Google Launches National TV-Ad-Sales Test on Echostar

E-Trade, Intel, Others to Participate in Program That Will Also Offer Second-by-second Ad Ratings

Google is making its entree into TV with a bang, announcing it has teamed with Echostar to offer a national, auction-based ad-sales system for inventory running on 120-plus cable TV networks, and offering second-by-second commercial ratings for the buys made through the system.

Mike Steib, Google's director of TV, said 'market dynamics will drive pricing.' He said the program will also be the first to offer second-by-second commercial measurement.



120-plus cable channels
In a few short months, the service will be up and running as a closed trial. Already advertisers such as Intel, E-Trade and 1800Flowers have decided to participate.

The launch marketers and agencies will be able to go into their existing AdWords account and access a TV-advertising account. They can elect to have their ads run on any of Echostar's 120-plus cable channels available and buy by daypart. Or marketers could ask a recommendation engine to generate a plan based on the demos a marketer is trying to reach.

Then the advertiser will bid for inventory on that particular daypart and channel in a blind auction, which means advertisers won't see other bids and will only know what the winning bid price was if they indeed won the auction. All bidding will be based on household cost-per-thousand viewers, or CPMs. Google didn't disclose whether Echostar would be able to set a minimum price for its inventory but, said Michael Steib, Google's director of TV, "market dynamics will drive pricing."

Read the full article at AdAge