Google’s more than a little excited about this development, and it has good reason to be.  Mark Piesanen, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Google TV Ads, characterized Verizon FiOS TV as "one of the fastest growing television providers with the largest fiber-optic network in the US."

In a post on the Google TV Ads Blog, Piesanen then continued, "By adding over 50 networks on Verizon FiOS TV across 3.3 million homes, we can offer you growing access to the audiences you want to reach on television."

Indeed, that means Google TV Ads should be able to offer advertisers a way of reaching around 35 million households by early next year, which is rather impressive.  And, since months have gone by since NBC Universal decided on another approach and no other partners have left, the word "should" doesn’t seem like a matter of wishful thinking.

Perhaps Google will even be able to collect another partner or two before that time.  Its Google TV efforts are likely to introduce employees to new contacts, after all.

The Google TV Ads team deserves a pat on the back for the Verizon FiOS TV partnership, regardless.

Things got off to a promising start between Google and NBCU in late 2008.  The networks covered by the original deal included Chiller, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, Sleuth, and SyFy (then Sci Fi), which seemed to indicate a fair amount of confidence on NBCU’s part.

But Steve McClellan reported today, "[S]ources said that NBCU had concluded that there was little value derived from having an Internet company sell its ads."

NBCU’s national sales teams are supposed to take over the operation, instead.

The good news for Google is that NBCU hasn’t cut all ties.  The company was able to say in a statement, "While we are no longer offering NBC Universal inventory through Google TV Ads, NBC Universal continues to be a great partner to Google. . . .  CNBC is an important partner in the launch of Google TV and we are working together on research studies."

It’ll just be interesting to see whether any other organizations follow NBCU’s lead, or if Google is able to find more partners to participate in its TV Ads program.

"With season four debuting on Sunday, July 25th, Mad Men fans are buzzing with excitement," says Neha Mandal, Product Marketing Manager for Google TV Ads. "For advertisers, this is a great opportunity to reach an upscale and educated audience. Target Mad Men across DISH Network’s 14M homes and align your message with this high caliber show by creating a Google TV Ads campaign today."

AMC also has a new series called Rubicon, which starts August 1st (a preview was shown after Breaking Bad’s season finale). "The show promises to ‘tap into our collective paranoia’ by chronicling an intelligence analyst who cracks codes for a living," says Mandal. "This show is a great chance to target adults 21+ who are interested in sci-fi and thrillers."

Of course Google TV ads aren’t limited to AMC shows, but the channel is developing a reputation for high quality original programming, and Google clearly sees the upcoming premeires as a good chance to push them.

Google also mentions Real Housewives of DC and the Rachel Zoe Proejct on Bravo, as well as the US Open as potential ad targeting opportunities.

Google’s relationship with DISH Network goes back much further than this announcement, however. Since 2007, the two companies have had a partnership around Google’s TV Ads, the television advertising arm of its AdWords service. Google has now announced that this relationship is expanding.

"For the past three years, DISH Network has been one of Google’s strongest partners in the TV advertising space," says Google TV Ads product marketing manager Neha Mandal. "Back in 2007, DISH embraced our emerging TV ads platform by signing on as our first partner and has since been an innovative thought leader with Google throughout the growth of this business."

"We’re happy to announce that we’ve renewed and strengthened our partnership with DISH Network and will continue to offer great inventory across over 95 networks on DISH," adds Mandal. "Through Google’s TV Ads platform, advertisers can continue targeting audiences across networks like Animal Planet, CNN, MSNBC, NFL Network, TBS, USA and over 90 others."

Google says to be on the look out for more new features and targeting options coming soon to the Google TV Ads platform, which is just one of many ways you can expect Google to continue its penetration into television advertising, if Google TV becomes as big as many are expecting.

In a recent article, we looked at how Google might accomplish this. The company seems to view moving into the TV format similar to what it has already accomplished with mobile via Android. Google says it will likely develop new ad formats for Google TV in the future, but at first they’re just concentrating on delivering a good product.

According to the WSJ, only a small number of Google employees and their families are testing the box, which runs on Google software (Android is implied), and lets users create personalized lineups of shows. The testing has reportedly been going on since last year. Aside from these things, the details are sketchy at best, which can only mean one thing: let the wild speculation commence.

Assuming that this service ever comes to fruition, it could open up a lot of new opportunities for Google to dominate or at least heavily compete in areas in which it isn’t dominating already. Rather than doing too much speculation myself, allow me to just list some questions and open this up for discussion:

- What if Google gets exclusive deals with Dish Network as well as other major satellite and cable providers? Google TV Ads already has deals in place to provide ads on close to a hundred cable networks.

- What if Google makes more deals to boost its movie rental selection on YouTube? How big of a player would that make YouTube in the movie rental space? This will be something to keep an eye on with or without this box as Internet-ready TVs permeate the mainstream.

- Will Yahoo and Bing be looking at opportunities like the Google/Dish Network box? Are they already?

- What would widespread integration of web search and television mean for TV advertising?

In the not-too-distant future, we may start to really see TV advertising getting more targeted, which has long been the medium’s biggest downfall. People often record shows simply so they don’t have to watch the commercials. What if the ads were targeted at the individuals watching the TV? What if they were relevant? Search advertising paved the way for this kind of relevancy, and may just be a key to the future of TV advertising in a world where viewers want their programming on demand.

There I go off on that speculation. This all sounds good in theory, but a lot of puzzle pieces have to fall in place, and a lot of stars have to align for this to become a reality. Deals must be made, and money must be spent. That’s not to say the concept is far-fetched.

Consider that advertisers are finding online to be a better option than even the super bowl in some cases. This past Super Bowl, Pepsi skipped a TV spot for the first time in 23 years. TV is going to have to adapt.

Tell us what you think.

John Saroff wrote on the Official Google TV Ads blog, "We’re happy to welcome A&E Television Networks (AETN), one of the largest cable programmers in the US, as our newest inventory partner.  Through our partnership with AETN, advertisers will be able to target History International through the Google TV Ads system and reach over 55M homes nationwide."

Saroff then spelled out a few more details, continuing, "Hailed as one of the fastest growing cable networks, History International brings cutting edge content focused on historical events through shows such as Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire, Battle360, History’s Turning Points, and Lost Worlds — to name just a few.  Advertisers can target exciting shows that bring a core audience of educated and affluent males aged 25-64 who are interested in historical events and global affairs."

Obviously, this development will put Google TV Ads in a better position to generate revenue.

It may cause other networks to give Google TV Ads a second look, too, leading to a sort of snowball effect.

Related Articles:

> Google Obtains Access To TiVo Data

> Google Adds Ovation TV As TV Ad Partner

> Google TV Ads Gets Game (Show Network)

Mike Steib, Google’s director of emerging platforms, explained the arrangement in a formal statement.  "This deal with TiVo will give advertisers access to even more anonymized viewership data, making Google’s dataset one of the best in the industry," Steib said.  "Advertisers can use this data to understand which audiences and ads are most effective, which we think will ultimately lead to more relevant ads for viewers."

This development is likely to result in heavier use of Google TV Ads, too.  After all, the more data Google can provide, the less risky its program will seem, perhaps causing marketers to embrace it over alternatives or give TV ads a shot for the very first time.

What’s a little harder to discern is how TiVo benefits from the arrangement.  Presumably Google paid more than a couple of dollars for access to TiVo users’ data; all Todd Juenger, TiVo’s vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement, would say is that this acts "to help the media industry better understand the effectiveness of ad campaigns in an evolving TV landscape."

Anyway, Google TV Ads is supposed to be able to reach 96 million households as things stand, and has served over 100 billion ad impressions to date.

Related Articles:

> Google Gets A New Real-Time Infrastructure For Display Ads

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

> Google Ad Planner Gets Several New Enhancements

According to AdWeek, Google will begin including Ovation Inventory on October 2. When clients log-in to Google TV Ads, they will be able to bid on Ovation inventory along with the rest of Google’s partners, which include a number of NBC Universal channels like NBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, SyFy, Chiller and Sleuth, as well as the Hallmark Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS College Sports, and GSN.

Ovation TV shows a lot of art-related programming. For example, some of the things showing over the next day or two include:

- Howard Goodall’s Great Dates
- Piet Mondrian: Mister Bookie Woogie Man
- Art Safari
- New York, New York
- Dance School: Juilliard
- Artists Den

This should open up a whole new demographic for Google TV Ads advertisers. To my knowledge, this is the only network of its kind to be included as a partner.

To a certain degree, this move makes more sense than other advertising tie-ups.  Game shows often involve money and products that are available for purchase, after all, putting their viewers into a consumer-y frame of mind.

A post on Google’s Let’s Take it Offline blog also adds, "As the premier television network for games, GSN produces some of the most popular original casino and game show series on TV today. The typical demographic for GSN is pretty broad, with its audience consisting of adults in all ranges, who are interested in live game shows and interaction with TV shows."

Anyway, as the picture below proves, this development follows a number of other impressive partnerships involving Google TV Ads and various networks.  Despite the struggles and eventual demise of Google Audio Ads and Google Print Ads (with which Google TV Ads shared the "Offline" blog), Google TV Ads just keeps getting stronger.

Would-be users should know, "Once you upload your ad and set the CPM and budget, your ads will then be entered into the auction.  After your ads air, you will have access to reports measuring the number of impressions, CPM and audience retention based on accurate set-top-box data."

TV advertisers that aren’t already familiar with the new interface will want to get acquainted. They can start with the following video:

Google lists the following features as being helpful for making managing TV campaigns easier:

- The Traffic Estimator tool is now integrated into the core campaign summary view

- Historical bid guidance will be available when researching networks and programs to add to your campaign

- New filtering capabilities allow sorting campaigns by custom dayparts, days of the week, and current bid
 
- Custom dayparts are much easier to build via the new drag and drop network/daypart selector

"We’re excited to finally unveil the new interface which hopefully addresses the feedback we’ve heard from our advertisers over the years," says a post from the Google TV Ads Team. "But we’re not done yet — the new AdWords interface is built on an infrastructure that lets us develop features more quickly than in the past, so you’ll continue to see new features launched regularly in the coming months."

Google has a microsite set up where advertisers can get better acquainted with the new interface. There are also training videos.