• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, August 11, 2010

Google's auction-based TV Ads system received a boost Wednesday with word that it will now sell inventory available in 18.7 million homes served by DirecTV.

Google has been auctioning off spots running in Dish Network households for some time.

The search giant has access to the local breaks, where the two satellite operators own space each hour on cable networks. The DirecTV arrangement is limited, however, with only inventory on 11 lower-rated networks up for sale, ranging from Fox Business to Chiller to TV Guide Network. Some of the channels are highly targeted, such as G4 and Fuel.

The TV Ads system allows advertisers to specify preferences on audiences they hope to reach. They then bid on options that Google's technology finds.

With the DirecTV deal, it's possible an ad could run simultaneously on, say, TV Guide Network in the combined 33 million homes served by DirecTV and Dish.

But ads will also run only in DirecTV or Dish homes, if a particular channel is only carried by one of them.

Still, the chance to reach 33 million homes --- which is a larger reach than many national cable networks -- could quiet some who say TV Ads lacks significant reach.

Mike Steib, who heads TV Ads at Google, said the DirecTV deal signals that the company could now attract cable and telco TV operators to cede inventory to Google. Cable operators and telcos have more robust local sales operations than satellite operators have typically had.

"If you know of anyone that's given their inventory to someone else, but not to us, let me know," Steib said. "Because I'd love to call them."

Telco Verizon has allowed Comcast to sell ads on its FiOS service in at least 10 local markets.

Google TV Ads captures data from set-top boxes that allow it to provide advertisers with some performance information for spots. Before the DirecTV arrangement, Google had said it was drawing data from some 4 million homes, and using algortims to project national numbers.

Rentrak said this week it has a deal to capture data from 4.3 million homes served up by Dish.

In addition to DirecTV and Dish time, Google bidders can try for spots running nationally on networks, such as Outdoor Channel and GSN.

But higher-rated national cable networks -- TNT, USA, ESPN -- have opted not to provide theirs, fearing it may turn it into a commodity. Steib says TV Ads isn't meant to supplant face-to-face negotiations for spots on hit shows or on multiplatform deals. It just helps fill time when a network is drawing little demand.

"This is an ad network, and the most premiere brands on the Internet still use an ad network to optimize their yield ... even some of the best sites for ads (are) repped by a third party, and we think of ourselves in the TV space the same way," he said.