Internet search giant Google is to begin selling television ads on the 125 national satellite programming channels distributed by US digital satellite broadcaster EchoStar Communication’s DISH Network.

The agreement is Google’s latest foray into offline media, and it underscores the company’s ambition to bring its successful online advertising technology and auction-based pricing to new markets to continue fuelling the company’s rapid growth.

Google’s online advertising technology has appealed to advertisers in large part because it allows them to aim ads effectively at specific audiences and users, and to measure the performance of those ads quickly. The company hopes it can bring those forces to old-line media.