• by David Goetzl , February 1, 2008

A year ago, the keep-your-friends-close-and-enemies-closer dynamic seemed like smart business. Now, the TVB has asked Google to participate in a session during its annual marketing conference next month.

> "When Google speaks, everybody listens," said Chris Rohrs, president of the TVB, the trade group for local stations. "We decided to invite the Google TV Ads team to our conference and allow broadcasters to get a close-up look at what they're doing."

Michael Steib, director of Google TV Ads, will headline the session that will include Q & A.

Google, of course, positions itself as less of a competitor than a potential partner in helping build business for programmers. TVB is no doubt interested in exploring how Google can help local stations potentially find more efficient sales mechanisms, perhaps via online auctions.

Google has a partnership with Dish Network to sell some of its inventory on cable channels via an online auction. Viewership of the ads can be measured from set-top box data. Separately, Google has a deal with Nielsen that can generate second-by-second viewing data for specific demos from the Dish boxes.