Google has taken its first step into selling TV ads on a deal to deliver them to ads to millions of EchoStar subscribers. The new pact moves forward Google's goal to broker advertising in media
other than the Internet. The company will sell some of EchoStar's TV time via an automated auction system similar to the one it uses to tout Web-search ads.
"We think that TV is becoming
more like the Web," says Keval Desai, Google's director of product management for TV advertising. "If you think about TV, you have hundreds of networks. . . If you're an advertiser, it's very hard for
you to go and target these networks one by one. You need a scalable, automated platform."
The new partners decline to reveal financial terms--or even length--of their contract. EchoStar
currently has 13.1 million subscribers to its Dish Network service. "For us, it's an investment in the future of advertising," says Michael Kelly, EchoStar executive vice president of advertising.
"It's a multiyear contract, but we think it should last forever."
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