Google Pulls Plug on TV Ad Sales System

Google is pulling the plug on an online exchange that tried to establish the online giant as a major player in the sale of TV ad spots.

our editor recommends

Google Search to Start Targeting Copyright Violators

Google Close to Resolving EU Antitrust Probe

In a blog post late Thursday, Google said it would end its TV Ads in Adwords service later this year.

Google has been selling paid-search ads successfully online and wanted to push into the TV ad space, but it faced resistance from established players in the TV and advertising communities.

Google's Second-Quarter Financial Report Impresses Wall Street

Hallmark Channel and NBCUniversal's cable channels became early partners, hoping to draw more local advertisers that Google has relationships with. But the Google ad venture was dealt a setback in 2010 when NBCUniversal ended its deal a year early.

"In 2007, we launched Google TV Ads in AdWords to bring digital buying and measurement technologies to traditional TV advertising," Shishir Mehrotra, vp product at Google's YouTube, wrote in the blog post late Thursday. "Since then, lots of our clients have bought traditional TV advertising for the first time. However, video is increasingly going digital, and users are now watching across numerous devices."

Added Mehrotra: "The future of video advertising is extremely bright, and we’re excited to devote ourselves fully to it."

The service's staff would be moved "to other areas at Google," the post said without providing more details.

E-mail: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai