Google, EchoStar Sign TV Ads Deal

Google has taken its first steps into the television advertising business, signing an agreement on Monday with EchoStar Communications to sell commercial ad spots on DISH Network.

Similar to the Mountain View, Calif. company's radio ad offering, advertisers would use AdWords to bid on television spots. They would then be able to upload the television commercial via the Web, as well as select time, channel, area of focus, and even target a specific demographic.

"Our partnership with EchoStar is important for us as we begin to offer a TV advertising platform broadly," CEO Eric Schmidt said. "We think we can add value to this important medium by delivering more relevant ads to viewers, providing better accountability for advertisers and better monetize inventory for TV operators and programmers."

A similar program has also been launched with San Francisco cable operator Astound Broadband, which has been running Google TV spots with since last fall. Some higher profile companies, such as E*Trade Financial and 1-800-Flowers.com, have already committed to using Google's system.

Negotiations are in the works with other cable operators, however Google is staying mum on specifics. It's not clear how successful they might be, as many media companies still seem a little hesitant to allow Google to control some of their ad space.

So far its radio ad efforts have only seen about 900 stations in about 200 markets sign up to be part of the program. Many are low-budget and low-power stations outside of major metropolitan areas, the New York Times reported last week.

The newspaper ads initiative is doing better, according to Google. Unlike its radio ads division, it has been able to attract larger entities such as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the San Jose Mercury News. Ad sales are currently running at double the company's initial projections.