Media Forum: Is Google revolutionising TV?

sell some of the airtime of the channels carried on the platform.

In the US, distribution platform operators have a right to sell some of
the airtime of all the channels they carry, so under this EchoStar deal,
Google will now be selling a portion, including peaktime slots, of the
inventory of big media owners such as Disney, Viacom and News Corp.

But still, EchoStar has a less than awesome share of the US TV market,
and Google will initially be charged with selling a relatively
insignificant proportion of its inventory. Small potatoes, you might
argue. Especially as we have, in recent years, seen a number of airtime
auction schemes come to nothing, on both sides of the Atlantic.

However, the industry might be wary of underestimating the significance
of this move because, perhaps predictably, Google intends to reinvent
the TV airtime trading mechanisms. It will sell airtime in the same way
as it sells online inventory - on an auction basis. And it will use a
similar sort of reconciliation method, but instead of clicks or page
impressions, its currency will be "set-top-box impressions". A set-top
box tuned to a channel during the ad break in which your ad runs
delivers one impression. The number of people in the room at the time is
irrelevant.

Which is great for zero-rating channels in satellite TV's twilight zone.
But does it have long-term implications for mainstream TV? Mike Steib,
Google's director of TV advertising, hopes it does - and not just in the
US. Google, he says, wants to offer the same benefits (simplicity of
purchase, accurate targeting and ultimate accountability) that it offers
in the online space.

Shouldn't media agencies be suspicious, however - Google, notoriously,
has stated in the past that it wants to disintermediate (a euphemism for
cutting out the middle man) agencies from the online trading
mechanism.

"Agencies are our valued partners," Steib responds. "We're going to be
generating more data on targeting and performance than ever before,
which arguably makes agencies more important. Nor are we looking to
commoditise the inventory we sell. We recognise the importance of
editorial adjacency."

Which is good to hear, Oliver Cleaver, the media director of
Kimberly-Clark EMEA, responds. He agrees that many advertisers would be
interested in a truly simple way of trading airtime, but it's hardly
their main concern these days. He explains: "TV is not about commodity,
it's about quality of engagement. So it's the accountability part of
what Google is offering that will be of interest.

"We'll want to know whether this is just another way of measuring
eyeballs, because advertisers' efforts these days aren't focused on that
so much. I'm not entirely sure Google wants to get into that area at
all. I think we might be far more interested if it were committed to
improving the overall research picture in media."

But Tim Jones, the chief executive of ZenithOptimedia North America,
says it will be interesting to look at viewing trends as represented by
the new Google metric. "This might be a good test-bed for applying
online media metrics to broadcast TV. EchoStar has four million homes
and Google will have 20 per cent of its inventory, so this represents a
small subset of the US broadcast market, but that's not to say that it's
not valuable," he argues.

And Damian Blackden, the director of strategic marketing technologies at
Universal McCann, points out that online auction systems for TV airtime
have been tried before and they've always made sense on paper, if not in
reality. Each local market around the world tends to have its own
trading nuances too, which means it's difficult to judge whether this
latest initiative has wider implications outside the US.

He concludes: "In some senses, it may help to polarise the TV market. An
auction system would be an attempt to reduce mainstream advertising to
its lowest common denominator at a time when media agencies are pursuing
communication planning strategies based on non-interruptive techniques
and things such as branded content."

YES - Mike Steib, director of TV advertising, Google

"Google's system allows advertisers and their agencies to reach their
targets in a simpler way - and the responses we have had so far have
been positive. We share a goal in seeking a better way of getting ads in
front of people."

NO - Oliver Cleaver, media director, Kimberly-Clark EMEA

"Agencies go pale when you mention Google because they fear it is trying
to take the trading of media away from them. I doubt this initiative
will revolutionise TV trading as it is not just about price these days -
it's more about quality of engagement."

MAYBE - Tim Jones, chief executive, ZenithOptimedia North America

"Outside of the upfronts, we have a number of other ways of going to
market, from remnant to barter and syndication - so this will represent
another opportunity. It won't change the world quite yet but it will be
interesting to see how it develops."

MAYBE - Damian Blackden, director, strategic marketing technologies,
Universal McCann

"The danger of an auction system is that it reduces things to their
lowest common denominator. Agencies will happily work with Google if it
enables them to get the best for their clients."

- Got a view? E-mail us at campaign@haymarket.com.