Google To Buy Nielsen's Demographic Data

Google has partnered with Nielsen to provide data which pinpoints what kinds of viewers are watching advertising sold through the Internet search giant's TV Ads network.

Since May, Google has been delivering television ads to about 14m subscribers through EchoStar Communication's satellite network and Astound Broadband cable service. The set-top boxes used by the pair have enabled Google to track when commercials were watched and for how long, to provide 'proof of performance' metrics for its TV advertisers.

Initially the new partnership will provide Google with a breakdown drawn from Nielsen's rating service which includes viewers' ages, gender, marital status and other personal information. This data will be integrated with the behavioural data Google collects from EchoStar and Astound, and used to help advertisers track the demographics of audiences that watched their commercials.

Google TV Ads Director Mike Steib explained that his company is hoping the Nielsen data will make TV Ads more accessible to mainstream TV advertisers. 'The goal was to bring many of the benefits of online advertising in terms of accountability, optimisation and measurement to the medium. Some of our advertisers are either new to TV or are returning to the medium after a long hiatus. The ease of use and accountability of online advertising appeals to them,' he added.

He declined to say how much TV advertising Google has sold to date, but confirmed that the firm has begun working with the 'top 10 advertisers in television' and that it is in talks with other major TV service providers.

Dave Thomas, President of Media Client Services at Nielsen believes that the partnership could ultimately include other elements such as collaborations between Nielsen Online and Google.

Web sites: www.google.com/adwords/tvads and www.nielsen.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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