Battlestar Galactica Meet Google TV Ads: Deal With NBC Universal Cut

Just in — and brief because it’s the end of the day — Google and NBC Universal have reached an agreement that will see the TV ads that Google sells coming to NBCU cable channels including SciFi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and others. The full release is below: NBCU Cable to Implement Google TV Ads Advertising […]

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Just in — and brief because it’s the end of the day — Google and NBC
Universal have reached an agreement that will see the
TV ads that Google
sells
coming to NBCU cable channels including SciFi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC
and others. The full release is below:

NBCU Cable to Implement Google TV Ads Advertising Platform

Google to Bring New Advertising Clients to Television

Partnership Includes Collaboration on Custom Research Projects to Help
Drive New Insights into TV Advertising

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. (September 8, 2008) – As part of its
continuing effort to offer innovative advertising solutions to its
clients, NBC Universal (NBCU) will join forces with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)
to form a strategic multi-year advertising, research and technology
partnership. The two companies will work together to develop more
effective advertising metrics, attract non-traditional advertising
partners to NBCU and incorporate self-service buying opportunities through
the Google TV Ads™ advertising platform.

The announcement was made today by Mike Pilot, President, NBC Universal
Sales and Marketing and Tim Armstrong, Google’s President of Advertising
and Commerce, North America.

On the national level, NBCU will offer advertising time from several of
its cable networks to Google’s TV Ads platform. Inventory from Sci Fi,
Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller will be made available to Google
in the coming months, with potential to expand onto other NBCU properties
in the future. With the addition of NBC Universal inventory, advertisers
using the Google TV Ads platform can reach NBCU Cable’s national audience
and gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale. With this
data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to
and make real-time adjustments to their campaign to maximize their ROI.

“We’re extremely pleased to join forces with Google on this effort,
which will help us develop better accountability and ROI metrics for our
advertisers and attract an entirely new group of clients to television
advertising,” said Pilot. “This is another step in our commitment to
trying innovative advertising approaches and testing new technologies that
can help benefit our clients.”

“The Google TV Ads platform is making television advertising more
accountable and measurable and we’re pleased with our progress to date,”
said Armstrong. “Our partnership with NBCU will help us bring the power of
television to a broader set of advertisers as well as give our current
advertisers increased reach through our system.”

On the local level, NBCU and Google have also agreed to work jointly on
adapting the Google TV Ads platform for local market use.

“This is a great way to reach clients who are interested in buying
television advertising but may not have previously had the resources or
ability to do so,” said Frank Comerford, President, Platform Development
and Commercial Operations, NBC Local Media. “A self-service ad platform
will be a great complement to our existing sales efforts and help us
further connect our clients to their customers.”

As part of the agreement, NBC Universal will maintain its direct
relationships with agencies and advertisers and can set parameters around
the purchase of the available ad time. NBCU will also gain access to the
large base of advertisers using Google’s AdWords™ online advertising
program, many of whom are not currently television advertisers. The two
companies will share in all ad revenue and explore innovative ways to
expand the partnership in the future, including adapting the platform to
add local inventory.

As part of their effort to help drive value for advertisers, NBCU and
Google will also collaborate on a series of custom marketing and research
projects using the Google TV Ads platform. Through its partnership with
DISH Network, the Google TV Ads platform can report second-by-second set
top box data allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more
precisely than ever before. The two companies will also take advantage of
joint research that will help advertisers and agencies better understand
their media mix and optimize their ad campaigns.

"We’re pleased that NBCU will make some of its inventory available on
Google’s TV Ads platform," said Laura Desmond, CEO of Starcom MediaVest
Group. "The partnership will generate real value for our clients by
providing us with a more measurable–and actionable–understanding of how
consumers engage with content."

About Google

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people
around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford
Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web
property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising
program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while
enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in
Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For
more information, visit www.google.com.

About NBC Universal

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment
companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment,
news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the
combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns
and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a
premier motion picture company, significant television production
operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme
parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by
Vivendi.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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