Google’s Ad Revenue Overtakes ITV1’s For The First Time
Google has generated more advertising revenue than ITV1 between July and September this year, according to analysis by The Times newspaper.
Looking at both companies results, Google generated £327 million in advertising in the quarter, compared with an estimated £317 million for all of ITV1 across the UK during the same three-month period.
It is the first quarter in which Google has overtaken Britain’s top commercial channel and will be a worry for ITV1, which has seen its advertising revenue decline in recent times, notably due to the Contract Rights Renewal mechanism.
ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has been a critic of the lack of regulation of Google’s activities compared to broadcasters.
He said last month: “Google, whose advertising revenues have overtaken Channel 4’s and which has 75% of the search advertising market, is wholly unregulated. Yet ITV labours under a host of anachronistic proscriptions about what it can and can’t do.”
Google is currently experiencing year on year growth in advertising revenue of about 43.5% compared to ITV1 revenues, which are expected to fall by about 7% this year.
More bad news may be on the horizon for ITV as Google is trialling a system to dynamically insert TV adverts into broadcasts in the US with satellite broadcaster EchoStar and Astound Cable.
The Google TV ads trial automates the entire process, from planning the campaign to uploading and serving the ad to reporting on its effectiveness.
Google TV ads are bought using an auction model through a single online interface with advertisers able to target by demographic, day part and channel and pay only for actual impressions delivered.
Yesterday, Grade told the MediaGuardian Changing Broadcast summit that ITV1’s schedule is to be relaunched next year.
“We have been planning for a year to relaunch ITV1’s schedule next year,” he said. “We have been desperately trying to keep this a secret, but hopelessly. This is a very sensitive commercial secret for us (see
Michael Grade Reveals Major Schedule Relaunch For ITV1 www.google.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com