NEWS: Google TV: Please Buy A TV Ad

Google TV: Please Buy A TV Ad

Google (GOOG) wants you to log on and buy a TV ad. The company tells Multichannel News it's about to take the "beta" label off its TV service, meaning anyone, more or less, can place an ad on DirecTV through Google.

Google had been running its TV ads service by invitation-only since June. Invited advertisers could use the system to place 15- or 30-second spots on any of 94 cable networks across DirecTV's customer base of 14 million.

But outside of DirecTV, the rest of the industry hasn't exactly clamored to join up. One problem: while Google wants to give small-time advertisers the chance to lowball bid on TV spots, cable operators want to move in the opposite direction: investing big on on ad-targeting technology to convince national advertisers their spots are more valuable . Another problem: one unnamed (probably cable) exec told Multichannel News that Google "completely underestimated the compexity of deployment."

Google TV product manager Kevai Desai says he believes opening up the system will convince others cable/satellite/telcos to join: 'If we can make money for our partners, if Comcast is seeing revenue they didn't have before, I can't see why they wouldn't want to work with us.'

Ed: Also radio commercials. Leveraging their clout with SEM and SMB buyers into new markets, but are these the same buyers??