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Google Strikes Deal w/‘Family Guy’ Creator, Distributes Clips via AdSense

Google has struck a deal with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to syndicate a series of shorts, created by the writer, to thousands of websites that are predetermined to be hubs for MacFarlane’s target audience - that is, young men.

The syndication will be accomplished using Google’s AdSense advertising system. Rather than placing an ad on a web page, Google will place a video clip, explains The New York Times. Pre-roll ads will be included before some clips. Other clips will include a banner at the bottom or a “brought to you by” note at the beginning.

The project, called Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, will be made up of 50 two-minute episodes. It is expected to launch in September. MacFarlane describes the installments as “animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier.”

MacFarlane  has also been working with advertisers to animate original ads that will run along with the Cavalcade clips. Google said that several of the MacFarlane deals are the largest ever landed by AdSense.

Media Rights Capital is funding the project and will also sell the advertising inventory. Revenue will be split between MacFarlane, Media Rights, Google and the website that generated the click.

Google has experimented with distributing video content through AdSense in the past, most notably (and not terribly successfully) with MTV, writes paidcontent.

Online video viewing was up 13 percent in March, according to ComScore. Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (38 percent share of all videos).