Google is about to change how we watch television ads for good

Want  to know exactly how many people saw your ad on TV? Want dynamic insertion? The answer has long been “tough luck.” But now it’s possible … in Kansas City. Adweek has learned that Google will be rolling out a TV ad-tracking system similar to the technology used to measure ad views online, giving the company a more accurate idea of how many people are watching the ad inventory it sells in Kansas City than traditional panel measurement ever could. This is a big deal: TV measurement has been changing rapidly in the past few years, but the traditional gross ratings point, which relies on a panel of Nielsen viewers small enough to create problems for networks without multimillion-viewer bases, is still the industry standard. Relatively few households have Nielsen boxes; every household with Google Fiber, obviously, has a Google Fiber box. And that box can put the ad in whenever it’s timely, and tell the client about it. “Fiber TV ads will be digitally delivered in real time and can be matched based on geography, the type of program being shown (sports, news, etc.), or viewing history,” the company explains in a blog post set to go live this afternoon.