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Google abandons TV advertising

August 31, 2012

After five years of trying to make the TV world adopt its scheme to trade broadcast ads in the same way as it does online banner ads, Google has given up. In a win for the traditional media establishment Google quietly announced in a blogpost that it would close its TV Ads in Adwords product later this year.

The service, which at one stage partnered with NBCUniversal and the Hallmark Channel, was supposed to combine the speed, flexibility and targeting capabilities of the web with the emotional punch of the 30-second spot.

The blog said “In 2007, we launched Google TV Ads in AdWords to bring digital buying and measurement technologies to traditional TV advertising. 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. So we’ve made the hard decision to close our TV Ads product over the next few months and move the team to other areas at Google.”

Google is pushing its popular YouTube video site to become more like a traditional broadcaster, with channels of professional and regularly updated content, in an attempt to attract more loyal viewers and more valuable advertising.

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