(26 October 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Google and Nielsen have entered into a multi-year strategic relationship wherein Nielsen will measure online television viewing behaviour and bring demographic data to the Google TV Ads advertising platform.

The Nielsen data is intended to provide advertisers with better demographic data on viewer audiences. It will record the data Google collects through the set-top boxes from its cable and satellite partners.

Google TV Ads, which was launched on trial basis in April, offers a way to better target television commercials. The system offers an auction system to determine prices at certain time slots.

However, TV Ads may not be the only platform on which Google and Nielsen partner up. The two companies said that they would "explore a number of other opportunities " on which to collaborate.

Google has already been expanding its AdWords program, launching programs for radio and print media, along with the TV service.

Google TV Ads is similar to its AdSense program for online advertisements, which charges only for clickable ads.

Advertisers purchase time by bidding on specific time slots within programs. The charges are then determined by the number of television sets that actually display the advertisement.