Google Gets TV Ads on Hallmark

Google announced today that advertisers will be able to buy commercials on The Hallmark Channel and The Hallmark Movie Channel through the Google TV Ads service starting early next year. While the deal will give Google access to both networks’ national audiences, the announcement did not indicate how much inventory Hallmark would make available to the search giant.

While Google struggled to get its TV ads service up and running, with just DISH Networks using the service, the search giant is starting to gain some traction in its strategic shift to targeting programmers. The Hallmark deal comes just a few months after NBC opened up some of the ad inventory on its Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth and Chiller cable channels.

Heading off Google before it could dominate the TV ad space like it does the search ad space was one of the reasons behind the creation of Canoe Ventures, the joint initiative of the six major cable companies to sell targeted ads and interactive services across those networks. Both entities talk about delivering better data from users to create more optimized ads. Canoe CEO David Verklin gave a fiery speech at NewTeeVee Live where he delivered the message: “Don’t count out the television business.”