MacFarlane Original Video Launch Through Google AdSense: Two Years Of Shock Waves in the Making
By Rafat Ali - Sun 29 Jun 2008 06:50 PM PST
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has experimented, not that successfully, to distribute video content through its AdSense network and monetize it, most notably with MTV. About a year ago it announced a deal with Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy” on Fox, to launch a new project called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy”, only to be distributed through this AdSense for video program. Now NYT got some more details for the series which is supposed to launch in September, after two years in gestation, through “thousands of Web sites that are predetermined to be gathering spots for Mr. MacFarlane’s target audience,” as NYT puts it. There will be 50 two-minute episodes, and MacFarlane has created a stable of new characters to star in the series.
Media Rights Capital, the buzzy Hollywood boutique financing firm, is providing the funding for the series, and MRC will also sell the advertising inventory. The series has a multimillion-dollar production price tag, among the highest for an online series so far. Asif Satchu, the company’s co-CEO, would not reveal how much advertisers were being asked to pay, except to say that it is “significantly higher” than if they were placing the same ad via AdSense, the story says.
As for monetizing it, there will be prerolls, an an option for a banner to be placed at the bottom of the video clip or a simple “brought to you by” note at the beginning. MacFarlane, MRC, Google and the Web site that generated the click/view will split the revenues four ways. Also, for a larger fee, MacFarlane has been working with advertisers to animate original commercials that will run with “Cavalcade.”
The NYT story goes a bit overboard in branding this move “a bold step into the distribution business, one that, if successful, will surely send shock waves through the entertainment business.” If successful, that small, little variable…
Pic: Courtesy Cheryl.
Posted in: Advertising, Companies, Google, Entertainment
