Google Signs Web Syndication Deal With “Family Guy” Creator
Google is entering into the entertainment business this autumn, has apparently entered signed a deal with “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, the hit cartoon series, to launch a new animated show exclusively on the internet in a further sign that advertising dollars are marching from traditional media to the internet.
According to The New York Times, Google intends to help finance and distribute Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy through the search engine’s AdSense advertising program.
Rather than providing traditional ads, Google will group the cartoon show using AdSense to thousands of specific websites that would present Web surfers cartoon shorts that, once clicked, play an advertiser’s message along with the content for MacFarlane’s ‘target audience’ of mainly young men.
As indicated by the Times, Google will try incorporating MacFarlane’s cartoon with several video ad formats, including pre-roll ads and banners. “The show will be displayed in video clips over the internet, instead of ‘still’ adverts, and MacFarlane will receive a percentage of the advertising revenue.
What appears to have originated as a simple play to create new cartoon content for the Web — and produce income from it — may in effect herald a new media distribution model.
The creator of the immensely successful Family Guy, which is televised on Fox and BBC in the UK, has planned to deliver 50 two-minute episodes which he compared to “animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier.”
In a recent blog post, John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media and author of The Search, wrote, “This will fail utterly.”
Battelle points out that Google needs to work with publishers to place the show and its ads carefully instead of relying on AdSense to automate the process. He further indicates that successful content distribution involves making it easy for people to find content rather than pushing it at them.
As the NYT mentions that this distribution model is unique. It symbolizes the first time Google’s massive AdSense network will be used as a vehicle to essentially Web syndicate video content. If victorious it could imply not only a new revenue source for Google, but could also offer a glimpse into the future of how media companies syndicate video content for the Internet.
Both Google and MacFarlane will earn money from TV-like pre-roll ads shown before the “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy” shows begin.
The news arrives as millions of Americans look set to turn to the internet for leisure as a second writers’ strike threatens to immobilize traditional television schedules as it did towards the end of last year.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment