ITV.com Turning Content In To Ads In Search For Web Income

When we revealed last month ITV.com was adding Google (NSDQ: GOOG) AdSense to its search pages in a bid to monetise more corners of its website, we also noted it would tap Vibrant Media’s Intellitext in-line ads technology, too. Now the broadcaster is going ahead and will formally announce the hook-up tomorrow. The technology will parse ITV.com articles for hot words, turning them in to text ad links - those pesky double-underlined ones that also come with popup rollovers. It will be rolled out to sites including ITV.com, Friends Reunited and ITV-F1.com, which will continue to be updated despite F1 rights now moving to the BBC. Some ads will be video. ITV (LSE: ITV) will also use the technology to offer automatic links to related pages on its own site.
SEE ALSO: ITV, Google Sign Paid Search Ads Deal; So Much For The ‘Parasite’
ITV.com now gets 9.4 million monthly uniques, according to internal November stats (four million, according to comScore, Sep 08), after growing since a 2007 redesign. But the troubled broadcaster was in August forced to delay by two years a very optimistic target of making £150 million annually from online and consumer COO Jeff Henry paid the price, leaving in a restructure last month that united online with TV ops. The adoption of Google and Vibrant show ITV.com monetising ad spaces that perhaps seem obvious, but spaces that many high-trafficked publishers overlook. ITV online revenue head Gary Cole: “It enables us to deliver ads that are relevant to our users when they want to see them. Through in-text ads, we are able expand our ad real estate whilst ensuring a better user experience across our network.”
Posted In: Advertising, Companies, ITV
Barnes & Noble (Paid)
Social Standing
Which media brands are getting a lift from Tweeters and bloggers right now -- and which are getting panned?
Show Me: