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Google Preps Tech to Merge Google TV Ads with YouTube

Google says it is working on technology that allow advertisers to buy ads across Google TV Ads, YouTube and other Web video, all via the same interface, in an effort to bring bigger advertisers to both services.

The new service, called Google TV Ads Online, is being tested with a small group of advertisers, Google’s director of television ads, Michael Steib, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Google TV Ads Online, which Google hopes will make it easier for big brand advertisers to spend across both services, is likely to be unveiled within a matter of months. Google is working to determine the best ad formats, Steib says.

For the new effort to be successful, YouTube will have to feature longer-form video like TV shows and movies, during which viewers tend to tolerate longer ads. But the video giant has only signed a small number of full-length content deals to date, including one with CBS Corp.

As television viewers continue to migrate to watching on the web, Google and other internet companies are in a mad dash to steal dollars from broadcast and cable television. Meanwhile traditional television outlets are fighting back by creating their own online services, like NBC’s Hulu and CBS’s TV.com.

According to a new survey from Knowledge Networks, some 80% of network TV video downloaders favor watching ads in exchange for free video (up from 67% in 2006), while 69% of network video streamers either watch the pre-roll ads before the video or listen to those ads while doing something else on the computer.

Google recently exited both its offline radio advertising and its print advertising programs.

In related news, Google announced it is cutting its sales and marketing staff by about 200 positions - its biggest round of layoffs not associated with a merger.