Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Google-NBC

If TV has a future, (and people staring at an electronic screen while entertainment plays is not going anywhere), it is companies like Google that are making it. Google TV is pretty interesting. The nut of it is advertisers only pay for the audience who actually watch the ad, not the quarter hour average rating of the show and ad break. In exchange, Google slots the ads so marketers have less control over which shows their spots end up in. 

Anyway, the Google TV program has been struggling because the traditional cable and TV nets do not like Google. They fear that true transparency in the metrics will take dollars away from their bottom line. This week Google struck a new deal with NBC. While it is only cable nets so far, this is still a huge development for Google. It gives them credibility and scale that the deal with EchoStar alone could not. We will see what happens, but hopefully the other nets will join the party. Anything that makes media more accountable and targeted is a good thing in my book. 

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