Internet advertising juggernaut Google and XM Satellite Radio have entered into an agreement which lets advertisers on the Google searchh engine insert advertising on XM’s non-music satellite radio stations through Google’s recently acquired dMarc network.
Under the deal, Google Adwords would be able to place terrestrial and satellite radio advertisements through the company’s dMarc media network when it is fully integrated into Adwords during the fourth quarter of the year. XM offerings which might be particularly interesting to advertisers include Major League Baseball coverage and the network’s Oprah Winfrey channel. XM currently claims over 7 million subscribers, and currently hopes to end the year with 7.7 to 8.2 million subscribers (down from the 9 million it originally forecast in January, 2006). Once integrated into Adwords, Google’s dMarc network will automatically schedule and insert advertising into XM’s programming. dMarc is appealing to XM (and terrestrial broadcaster) because it brings new advertisers to their stations, and has lower processing and insertion costs than traditional ad placements. dMarc hopes to appeal to advertisers by giving them one-stop shopping for Adwords, terrestrial, and XM ad placement.
“XM is excited about the opportunity to leverage Google’s extensive advertising base to open up a new revenue stream while providing marketers with a new way to reach consumers in an environment of compelling content and limited commercial loads,” said D. Scott Karnedy, XM’s senior vice president of sales and marketing solutions.
Ad income isn’t currently a major source of revenue for XM, but it did account for more than $9 million in the company’s second fiscal quarter, more than double the amount earned from ads in the same quarter the year before.
