"Bloomberg TV is largely an afterthought in a lucrative genre dominated by CNBC," wrote one journalist a year ago. But Bloomberg is trying to build up its business TV coverage, in part by letting Google handle the ad inventory. PaidContent summed up the deal announced this morning: "Google TV Ads primarily works with EchoStar and a much smaller, local California cable company, to serve the ads. That only gives Google access to the satellite TV company's 14 million households out of a roughly 65 million basic cable subscribers. Given the hunger for economic news due to the volatile financial markets, the Bloomberg deal could hardly have come at a better time." Here's the full press release, with "BLOOMBERG TELEVISION" left in screaming caps:

Google TV Ads Platform Adds Bloomberg TV to U.S. Inventory Google to Bring New Advertising Clients to the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® Network NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (September 25th, 2008) – Continuing efforts to make television advertising more relevant, accountable and measurable, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION® network will make national cable advertising time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads™ platform. By offering self-service buying opportunities through Google TV Ads, the BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network will expand its reach to a wider range of advertisers, including those that are new to the medium. With the addition of BLOOMBERG TELEVISION inventory, advertisers using the Google TV Ads platform can not only reach the high-net-worth BLOOMBERG TELEVISION U.S. audience but can also gain access to viewership data at an unprecedented scale. Google’s TV Ads platform can report second-by-second data from millions of anonymized set-top-boxes, allowing advertisers to measure viewership of their ads more precisely than ever before. With this data, advertisers can better understand what consumers are responding to and make real-time adjustments to their campaigns to maximize the return on their TV ad investments. Google's digital platform also makes it easier for advertisers to find relevant programming through its keyword search functionality. “We’re pleased to be partnering with BLOOMBERG TELEVISION to continue to make TV advertising more relevant and measurable,” said Mike Steib, director of Google TV Ads. “We will now be able to give advertisers, many of whom have never tried TV advertising before, access to the desirable BLOOMBERG TELEVISION demographic.” "The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION audience is the wealthiest and most powerful in cable television,” said Trevor Fellows, head of advertising sales at Bloomberg. “As high net worth viewers are extremely difficult to quantify using traditional methods, we believe that involvement with Google TV Ads from an early stage will help us and our advertisers learn more about our audience.” Google TV Ads offers greater accountability in advertising. With Google’s auction-based pricing system, advertisers only pay for impressions delivered to their ads, and they can receive integrated digital reporting within 24 hours. The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network joins Google TV Ads’ growing list of inventory, which also includes NBC Universal and DISH Network. "We're very happy with the progress of Google TV Ads," said Michael Kelly, executive vice president for DISH Network, Google TV Ads' current inventory partner. "Google TV Ads has brought more accurate, accessible, and up-to-date viewer measurement to the industry, enhancing value to our advertisers." The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION service is the only 24/7 business and financial news television network. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION content is created exclusively by the global BLOOMBERG NEWS® service, with 143 bureaus in 69 countries. BLOOMBERG TELEVISION programming offers viewers a snapshot of the markets with fast, accurate reporting of world indexes, currencies, U.S. Treasuries, commodities futures, agricultural futures, and exchange traded funds, as well as special features, insight and analysis, and proprietary coverage of leading stocks and industry sectors. The worldwide service broadcasts in seven languages.