Google has teamed up with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to run a number of short cartoons over its AdSense network. With thousands of web sites picked for the distribution deal and serious advertising dollars lining up, the search giant hopes to break new ground in Internet video distribution.

Dubbed the "Google Content Network," this service will run 50 short episodes of Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy across thousands of web sites known to be hangouts for his target audience, comprised mostly of young men. Episodes won't last longer than two minutes, according to the New York Times, with one cited episode called "Mac Cow Disease" clocking in at 38 seconds. Advertising may appear in the form of preroll spots or "lower third" banners during the episode.

Media Rights Capital, a production company that invests around $400 million each year in movies, TV, and Internet content, will be handling the advertising inventory. Each time a viewer clicks on a "Cavalcade" video or ad, advertisers will pay a fee that gets split between MacFarlane, Google, Media Rights, and the site hosting the video. Media Rights declined to offer details on pricing for ads in the "Cavalcade" series, saying only that their rates are "significantly higher" than if the same ad was placed in AdSense.

MacFarlane explained a few reasons by his decisions to work with Google on an Internet-only TV series, as well as why the episodes are so short. If you are at all familiar with Family Guy's history or even the recent seasons, MacFarlane's distaste for the FCC's tight policing of TV content is no secret. "I just felt I could be a lot more honest on the Internet," MacFarlane explained to the Times.

The first idea for the series was to write 20-minute episodes, then chop them up into shorter segments. "But that seemed a little odd and a little pointless," MacFarlane said. "Why wouldn't you just release the whole thing at once?"



Seth McFarlane

After Google provided data on the ways Internet users watch video on the web and how long short their attention spans are, MacFarlane scrapped the original project and developed the Cavalcade bite-sized episodes which he describes as "animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier."

While Google tested the waters with its Google Content Network in May with a deal to distribute real estate listings from the Washington Post, this Cavalcade venture is a significant step in original Internet distribution both for Google and the TV industry. Some networks like Comedy Central have dipped their toes in the Internet-only distribution pool, but Cavalcade is the first high-dive attempt with major funding in both advertising and production, not to mention a well-known celebrity taking the plunge.

If successful, Google and MacFarlane could manage to shake up both the advertising and Internet-based content distribution industries. Short, entertaining video clips that are distributed across thousands of web sites (instead of stuck at a specific destination) could very well attract the critical mass of eyeballs needed for advertisers.

Cavalcade could also have a lasting effect on how writers and producers approach video content in the future. If Google and McFarlane's experiment in bite-sized, highly distributable content pays off, it could lead to a change the way writers think about and structure the stories they tell.