NBC Universal and Google take new angle on ad viewership

Google recently announced a multi-year advertising, research and technology partnership with NBC Universal in which Google acts as broker for TV advertising time on some NBCU cable channels like Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth and Chiller. Both companies agreed to work together to capture more data on TV ads and follow the objective to get a better idea of how many people really watch them. The Google TV Ads Service can report second-by-second TV usage data allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more precisely. Thus NBCU clients are enabled to optimize their campaigns. With the help of this partnership, Google will be able to set foot in the television advertising market by demonstrating their features whereas NBCU can target ads at specific audiences, while leveraging Google’s expertise and relationships. Furthermore, NBCU gets the possibility to attract new advertisers. It remains to be seen how successful this new measurement technique reall...