Google TV Ads program to be shut down, focus on web adverts instead

Google said it is shutting down its online marketplace for TV ads, and will focus instead on web advertising including its own Google TV, it said Thursday.

The TV ads program, launched in 2007, was promoted by Google as a great way for small businesses to reach new customers and build a strong brand, and as an effective addition to the media plan of large advertisers. Google offered to bring its digital buying and measurement technologies, including its set-top box network, to traditional TV advertising.

"We launched Google TV Ads in AdWords to bring digital buying and measurement technologies to traditional TV advertising," said Google executive Shishir Mehrotra in a blog post.

However, video is increasingly going digital and users are now watching across numerous devices. "So we've made the hard decision to close our TV Ads product over the next few months and move the team to other areas at Google," Mehrotra said.

Google will be "doubling down" on video solutions for its clients, like YouTube, AdWords for Video, and ad serving tools for web video publishers. "We also see opportunities to help users access web content on their TV screens, through products like Google TV," Mehrotra said.

The company said in January that over the past year it had seen a six-fold increase in the number of ads aired per day as its household reach across cable and satellite operators had tripled. Google TV Ads had nearly tripled its operator household reach since the start of 2011, to a total of 42 million households nationwide, it added.