Google As Broadcaster In McFarlane Deal

Google As Broadcaster In McFarlane Deal

Category

Google Adsense

Family Guy's creation arriving only on the Web

'Family Guy' creator Seth McFarlane inked a big deal with Google to distribute an animated series across Google's AdSense network.

Coming soon to a few lucky AdSense video-capable publishers: Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. No broadcast or cable TV for this series, as it's a pure Internet play.

The New York Times said the deal will pull in some of the biggest advertising money Google's AdSense program has ever seen. 'Cavalcade' shows will be two minutes long, displaying their ads in a variety of ways based on advertiser preference.

While some ads will opt for the conventional pre-roll, sit through this first approach, others may go for a banner, or the PBS-like "brought to you by" mention at the beginning. The all-new, big budget series cost several million to produce, which should translate to not only substantial returns for Google and McFarlane, but the sites where 'Cavalcade' appears in the ad units.

As one might expect, the young male demographic stars as the targeted audience for both 'Cavalcade' and the advertising clients. It's been described as an edgier series, where McFarlane won't feel as constrained by the FCC's regulations on broadcast TV content.

The real edge comes if the series pulls McFarlane's fans to sites in anticipation of 'Cavalcade', and manages to keep them coming back to those sites in between the times the two-minute episodes air. That increases the value of Google's ad units, and could make them more in demand from site publishers.

Believe it or not, Google could use the boost from a stock market perspective. As Dare Obsanjo noted, shares of Google have underperformed both the Nasdaq and Dow Jones indexes in 2008.

About the author:

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Follow me on Twitter, and you can reach me via email at dutter @ webpronews dot com. Why not Mixx this article while you're here?