• by Joe Mandese , February 3, 2009

Google this morning announced an agreement to integrate its Google TV Ads system with VCI Solutions, a company that provides traffic and billing systems for managing TV advertising inventory. The companies said the deal would make it easier for VCI's cable network and broadcasting clients to make their advertising inventory available for sale via the Google TV Ads platform.

"In addition, these clients will have access to detailed reports on their inventory performance based on set-top box data," Google said in a blog posting that announced the deal.

"How does it work? As an inventory owner, you specify which inventory you'd like to make available through Google TV Ads," the post continues. "Once advertisers have uploaded their ads and bid the clearing price in an auction, the winning ads are delivered from Google's platform to VCI's traffic system, where they follow spot placement rules for where they will appear. As ads are approved and aired, VCI returns verification information to Google about when and where each ad ran."

The deal is part of an ongoing series of improvements that Google TV Ads has been making to win support from the TV industry, and from advertisers and agencies that buy TV advertising time.

To date, Google has received a lot of interest about its TV Ads platform--but so far it has struck inventory deals only with satellite TV provider EchoStar's Dish Network, and directly with NBC Universal for some of its smaller cable networks, and with the Hallmark Channel.