• by Shankar Gupta , January 23, 2007

Google is now distributing music videos from Sony BMG and Warner Music to select AdSense publishers, the company announced on its AdSense blog Monday.

The initiative expands on a beta test that began in September, when Google first distributed clips from MTV Networks shows, including "Laguna Beach" and "SpongeBob Squarepants."

Although Google has added new content partners, the search giant isn't adding any new publisher partners. The content will be monetized by video ads billed on a cost-per-impression basis. Participating publishers will be able to embed a "channel" that will show music videos in different genres--like "rock" or "divas"--on their pages. Ad revenue is split three ways--one share for Google, one for the content owner, and one for the publisher.

Greg Sterling, principal with Sterling Marketing Intelligence, said that the video content network could serve to make AdSense a more attractive offering to publishers and advertisers. "It's been sort of the less attractive of the two major programs that Google has--it has not performed as well as AdWords, so they're putting a lot of effort into making it appealing to attract and retain new advertisers," he said. "Google's pushing out to the Fortune 1000 advertisers, and this has appeal to them, and it also makes the AdSense program sexier."