Google’s recently announced deal with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane in which they will deliver original content across their AdSense network signals a new era in content distribution. It will no doubt increase the value of AdSense video ads but it lowers the value of content.
The project, dubbed Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy will carry a multimillion dollar production price tag for 50×2 minute episodes delivered over what Google is calling the Google Content Network. For an additional fee MacFarlane will create custom animated ads.
What Google is essentially doing is using quality video to increase the value of what has been historically low CPM advertising. Despite relatively effective targeting AdSense still gets lousy engagement in the form of low click-through rates and while I can’t speak for all users, I for one, have become desensitized to them in the same way that I ignore banners.
It goes without saying that Google’s distribution reach is massive. Google’s targeting of text ads so far has been less than ideal but their massive network can be very effectively optimized for video because there is more to measure.
Google is turning its AdSense network into the vision of the thousands of IPTV channels people spoke of as the future, except video is served across millions of contextually targeted websites rather than thousands of linear networks.
What bothers me, is that while this is a game changing, entirely new type of content deal, I would argue that it is lowering the overall value of the content. For creators, if not for networks there has always been some sense of creative independence and value in storytelling.
You can’t do in a 2 minute clock what you can do in 22 minutes. With network ratings declining and reality shows taking the place of big-budget shows like Studio 60, one can only hope that there will be a place for both.
