Google TV Ads was a project Google launched in 2007. At the time the company wanted to break through into the television market with services like Google Fiber (another discontinued project), and it was only logical to try to expand the company’s hegemony in the ad space.
The plan was to pick inventory from the products least monetized by TV networks, apply Google’s algorithms, and then sell at a much higher rate.
Google’s initial plan sounded good, especially with their previous experience with advertising. However, there were few things that the company didn’t consider or couldn’t handle appropriately, and that led to the project’s failure.
For starters, TV Ads depended on Google’s DoubleClick and AdWords platforms (both were later integrated into Google Ads), and marketers needed to use them. That was far from ideal, considering market agencies preferred set-ups that worked with their own workflow systems.
Furthermore, both small and big networks viewed Google’s appearance in their field as a potential threat, especially with Google already attracting more and more viewers to YouTube. That made networks reluctant to partner with Google and lose potential future revenue from the under-monetized products.
Thus, even though Google managed to partner with newer and smaller media, they never attracted the big players. That led to their decision to shut down the project. The company made an official announcement on their TV Ads blog in August 2012, informing customers about their decision.
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