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<p class=MsoNormal>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117349709482933055.html?mod=todays_us_page_one<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:18.0pt'>Google
Gains on Goal of Controlling And Targeting TV Commercials<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt'>By KEVIN J. DELANEY and
PETER GRANT<br>
</span></b><span class=atime1><b><span style='font-size:8.5pt'>March 10,
2007; Page A1</span></b></span><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=times><a
href="http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=goog">Google</a>
Inc. has established a toehold in pursuing of one its next big ambitions:
controlling which television ads viewers see and tailoring them to consumers'
interests.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>The Mountain View, Calif., company honed the highly profitable
Internet model of search advertising -- that is, selling ads targeted directly
at consumers based on the terms they enter into Web search engines. Last year,
the eight-year-old company racked up more than $10 billion of revenue by
brokering online ads for itself and its partners.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>Now, Google has begun a test run serving up TV commercials to
cable subscribers in Concord, Calif., people familiar with the matter say. The
pilot project to bring its approach to cable boxes represents a foray into the
$54 billion U.S. market for TV advertising -- much bigger game than Google's
online turf.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>Google since last year has been steering TV commercials to
subscribers of cable provider Astound Broadband, a unit of WaveDivision
Holdings LLC, according to four people familiar with the matter. When Astound's
customers watch TV, some commercials spots they see have been sold to
advertisers by Google and delivered to the cable company so they appear in the
normal breaks in programming as other ads do.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>While the effort is in its early stages, it underscores how
Google could bring changes to how TV commercials are sold and delivered to
viewers. Other Internet companies are also pursuing an entree into TV
advertising, and any major Google success could eventually challenge the
traditional TV and advertising powers.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>If the system is successful, Google could eventually try to
establish itself as a middleman for purchasing TV spots, furthering its stated
goal of offering advertisers one-stop-shopping across virtually all media. There
is no assurance, though, that Google can repeat its success in online-search
advertising -- a field in which it had little serious competition -- in the
crowded, highly competitive arena of conventional media.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt in January told analysts the
company is experimenting with TV advertising, without offering specifics. But
he said the company intends to use its technology to better target TV
commercials to viewers. Rather than every household seeing the same commercial,
Google in theory might tap databases with information about the demographics of
an individual's neighborhood and examine the content of the program being
watched at a given moment to better select which ads to beam through the TV.
So, for example, a household in an area with lots of children might be more
likely to see commercials for minivans than for sports cars.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>While federal privacy law restricts what cable companies can do
with "personally identifiable information," the theory is that
consumers will be better served seeing ads more relevant to them and will
perhaps agree to share information about their habits and interests with
Google. Such data eventually might allow Google or others to more specifically
tailor ads to individual households -- such as showing ads for dog food to
viewers who own dogs.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>"Advertisers in particular will pay much higher rates for
ads that are targeted than ones that are untargeted," Mr. Schmidt noted.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>The Concord effort, being conducted with a small group of
advertisers, is aimed at testing the computer and network infrastructure needed
for Google to broker and deliver commercials to cable systems more widely. In
the test, advertisers are buying commercial placements through an auction
system, people familiar with the matter say. But it is at an early enough stage
that the buys are being handled manually by Google salespeople, rather than
through a full-fledged automated auction like the one Google uses to sell ads
online, one of the people says.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>At this stage, the commercials aren't targeted to specific
households in Concord, which isn't far from Google's Northern California
headquarters, people familiar with the matter say. And the company likely won't
on its own tap information about a specific household's buying patterns or other
behaviors in order to choose the commercials because of the privacy concerns,
one of the people says.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=times>…<o:p></o:p></p>
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