Google to Buy TV Demographics Data from Nielsen

On Wednesday Google will announce it has signed an agreement with Nielsen to obtain TV-viewing demographics information from the television ratings agency for an undisclosed sum. In April, Google inked a deal to sell TV ads for EchoStar Communication Corp.'s Dish network through an online platform (full summary). The TV-top boxes used by EchoStar's roughly 14 million subscribers provide Google data on how many people are watching which commercials for how long. The Nielsen data will fill in "a missing piece of puzzle for us," according to Google's director of product management for TV ads, Keval Desai, by allowing it to match up demographic data with the viewing data it already has. By combining the data, Google will be able to better target specific TV-viewing audiences. Director of Google's TV ads service Mike Steib said: "The more measurement, the more information we can give to an advertiser and agency... the closer we get to our goal of helping advertisers put more relevant ads in front of consumers."

Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, AP
Commentary: Shift to Online Advertising Should Benefit Internet Publishers and Ad Providers • Google to Broker TV Ads for EchoStar
Stocks to watch: GOOG, DISH
Earnings call transcript: Google Q3 2007/a>

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