Web search behemoth Google struck a deal to use Nielsen data for its TV Ads platform. The multi-year deal allows Google to combine Nielsen demographic data with aggregated set-top box information. The result will give television media buyers more details on just who is watching ads when, and for how long.
Google TV Ads is still in beta on EchoStar’s Dish system, but is expected to eventually have wider deployment. The system, launched in May, goes beyond the usual time block ratings to “actual set-top box impressions,” according to Google, based in Mountain View, Calif. The Nielsen Company, based in New York, is the primary source for television audience measurement data.
The measurement system represents a way to account for the so-called “disruptive technologies,” those that time-shifted TV and defied traditional metric technologies. Chief among them are TiVo’s DVRs, which met resistance early on because they allowed people to skip commercials. Google’s measurement model also presents its own form of disruption, since TV ads have long been sold on an expected overall rating for a program or set period of time.
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