Google AdSense Broadcasts Itself

Don't look now, but the competition between Google and traditional
television media isn't just talk anymore. It's on. In a statement
e-mailed to InternetNews.com, the company said it is now offering
ad-supported embedded video units to AdSense publishers.

The announcement pits Google against traditional media companies, such
as NBC Universal, News Corp. Web Video, and the Disney-ABC Television
Group, as ad-supported video crosses over from television to the
Internet.

Google's new video units, which are based on a combination of the
video content and the publisher's site content, will feature video
from YouTube content partners TV Guide Broadband, Expert Village,
Mondo Media, lonelygirl15, Extreme Elements and Ford Models be based
on video content, as well as the publisher's site content.

Google said publishers can choose categories of video to target,
select content from YouTube partners, or have video automatically
targeted to their site's content.

Content publishers can also choose among a number of different video
unit styles. They all include a video screen and player controls and
display banner ads at the top, as well as text ads that pop up at the
bottom of the video. Advertisers are charged on a cost-per-click or
cost-per-impressions basis.

Per Google's video-advertising philosophy, the video units will only
play after a user has clicked to play them. That way, Google can see
how many times certain videos play compared to how many times they
could have played. Google will also be able to tell how much of an ad
users watch.

It's important for Google to know if users only watch a 30-second
video for five seconds on average, because it's a pretty good hint
that maybe another video would turn up more impressions.

YouTube content is not the first to be distributed through Google's
AdSense network.

That honor ironically goes to Viacom, which sued Google for copyright
infringement in March but signed a deal with Google to distribute MTV
content in August 2006.

That deal is dead now, but today's new content partners will join Seth
MacFarlane, creator of animated hits Family Guy and American Dad!, as
well as Raven-Symone of Disney's "That's So Raven."

There are similarities between the way Google is distributing
ad-supported video across the Internet and how traditional media plan
to.

NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker and News Corp. CEO Peter
Chernin said their Web Video venture Hulu, which will enter public
beta later this month, will offer an ad-supported embedded video
player to publishers small and large rather than create a YouTube-like
destination site.

When Chernin and Zucker announced Hulu in March, they said it will
primarily feature produced content, similar to the professional videos
from the YouTube partners included in Google's video unit
announcement.

And last month, Disney-ABC Television Group announced it will
broadcast full-length episodes through an embedded broadband player,
co-branded "ABC.com on AOL," alongside the local ABC affiliate's
station ID on AOL video.

Google said the new video units are available now in the U.S. for
English language Web sites and that more content is on the way.