WSJ: Google gains on targeting TV spots

In one of those seminal moments that could define the future of the TV business, Google, according to the Wall Street Journal,
has begun a test run serving up TV commercials to cable subscribers in
Concord, Calif., people familiar with the matter say. The pilot project
to bring its approach to cable boxes represents a foray into the $54
billion U.S. market for TV advertising — much bigger game than
Google’s online turf.

The article, in Saturday’s edition of the paper, says that since last year Google has been steering TV commercials to subscribers of cable provider Astound Broadband, a unit of WaveDivision Holdings LLC, according to four people familiar with the matter. When Astound’s customers watch TV, some commercials spots they see have been sold to advertisers by Google and delivered to the cable company so they appear in the normal breaks in programming as other ads do.