it looks like Google wants to bring TV ads into the 21st century. The company has quietly announced a new local advertising service for Google Fiber that will make TV ads behave a lot more like internet ads. Using data from its set-top-boxes, Google (and advertisers) will know precisely how many times a particular local ad has been watched in homes with Google Fiber service. That might not sound like a big deal, but the industry-standard Nielsen ratings simply don’t offer that kind of information. Like on the web, Google will only charge for the number of views an ad receives.
That’s not all. Google will use some viewer data, like what show you’re watching or what shows you’ve watched in the past to try and target the ads for maximum effect. The company even hints that ads can be fine-tuned for where you live — for instance, you might see a different local ad during the football game than your friend who lives on the other side of town. Advertisers will even be able to tell Google to stop showing an ad once a particular household has seen it a certain number of times. The service is launching as a limited trial in Kansas City for now, and could expand to Google Fiber’s other launch cities soon.
The Verge .. 2015/03/22 . more …