Google To Sell Ads On Satellite Television

Google said yesterday it reached an agreement with EchoStar Communications to sell national advertisements on satellite television as part of the Internet giant's latest effort to expand its ad network beyond the Web.

In the coming weeks, Google's automated system would allow merchants to bid on airtime on any of the 125 channels carried by EchoStar, operator of the Dish satellite TV network, said Keval Desai, Google's director of product development for television advertising. Advertisers would be able to select the day, time and channel that their ads would air, he said. Advertisers could also choose national or regional coverage.

"This is open to all advertisers of any size," Desai said, adding that Google plans a service to match video producers with advertisers who need help in developing ads. The search-engine company would also provide merchants with reports measuring the exposure of their ads once they air.

Google entered the television advertising market last year by launching a pilot program with a cable provider in Northern California. The deal with EchoStar marks Google's first foray into national television advertising, Desai said.

The initiative builds on Google's previous efforts to expand its profitable business of selling online ads to traditional media. Late last year, the company started selling ads on dozens of radio stations after acquiring dMarc Broadcasting, a radio advertising firm, and started a similar experiment with dozens of newspapers. While Google said the experiment in print advertising fared even better than envisioned, newspaper executives were more measured in their evaluation.

"Google has been highly successful in nearly every endeavor, and yet this may be one of the most challenging," said John Rash, a senior vice president at the ad agency Campbell Mithun. He said placing TV ads often involves complicated negotiations and subjective judgments about programming that are not easily automated. Though Rash's clients include EchoStar, his comments reflected a broader knowledge of the market.

"If it was simply an issue of ratings and rates, computers would already have taken over the process," he said.