Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) to Shut Down Google TV Ads

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is going to shut down its Google TV ads where it had tried to create an online marketplace for traditional television spots.

On Thursday the Internet search giant said it was shutting down its online marketplace for TV ads, and will focus instead on web advertising including its own Google TV.

Google TV ads was launched in 2007, and was promoted by the company as a great way for small businesses to reach new customers and build a strong brand. However the idea never caught on with buyers, programmers and distributors.

The TV ads program was supposed to serve 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.

Video is now increasingly going digital and users are 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.

The truth is that even after five years into the project, it did not get any traction.

"We also see opportunities to help users access web content on their TV screens, through products like Google TV," Mehrotra said.

In January Google had said 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.