At Mediabids.com we have been conducting auctions for advertising space in newspapers and magazines successfully for more than 10 years using two patented online methods. Looks like TV is set try something similar using Google. It is interesting that there appear to be the same concerns among TV networks about using an auction format to sell inventory as there was among print outlets for Mediabids' auction system in the early days.

This from MediaPost:

Advertisers, agencies and television executives jockeying for the best price and placement is the dynamic that drives the upfront. It could yield profitable results if more television time was sold in scatter. The laws of supply and demand would still govern the best content on television and elsewhere. But the advertising auction approach employed by Google and the targeted, addressable science of Google TV (which has sold upfront time to Coldwell Banker and to Saatchi & Saatchi) could become plausible mainstays of the digital interactive market.

Advertisers say their reluctance to make huge upfront TV commitments does not put them at risk, since they are holding back en masse, generally able to secure the commercial time they wanted closer to air time in last season's scatter market, often at prices comparable to the upfront.

The ever-dwindling ratings and audience shares continue to be a drag on advertiser enthusiasm. More advertisers are feeling comfortable with more targeted, quantifiable ad placement online and a collective multimedia strategy that includes TV.