Google Finally Gets On TV, But Will It Look Good In Front Of The Camera?

Predictions

from the we're-not-online-anymore dept

In its continuing quest to diversify its revenue streams, Google has announced that satellite TV operator Echostar, which operates the Dish Network, has hired the company to set up an automated system for buying and monitoring ad purchases. Google has been interested in TV advertising for quite some time, although its early forays into offline media have been less than stellar. As with its earlier efforts in print, it’s not clear what Google is really bringing to the table. It’s going to set up an auction system to sell the ads, which might result in more accurate pricing, but that doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary. It also claims it will allow advertisers to track the effectiveness of their ads — something which has been described as the holy grail of advertising — but this seems a bit misleading. While Google may be able to give good statistics on how many people have viewed an ad, unlike with its online ad sales, it won’t be in a position to give advertisers a good idea of how well their ads are turning into sales, the true measure of an ad’s performance. In fact, Google is only able to measure ad views through a system set up by Echostar, which further diminishes Google’s contribution to the whole thing. While Google has been working at this for a long time, it doesn’t sound as though it has developed anything that couldn’t easily be replicated by a competitor. And since the major television operators are going to be hesitant to hand over any more power to the company, it’s going to be tough for it to break into this market in a big way.