The company says this is evidence of the growing popularity and wide acceptance of programmatic TV advertising.
WideOrbit Has Automated Ads On 1,000+ Chs.
WideOrbit says programmatic TV has passed a key milestone on its way to becoming a mainstream method for buying and selling advertising: its WO Programmatic is now the first and only platform to offer local ad inventory on more than 1,000 TV channels.
Stations participating in WO Programmatic include properties from major station groups such as Raycom Media and Gray Television, among many others. Stations from each participating group offer some or all of their inventory through WideOrbit’s open marketplace buying model, programmatic direct connections, or both.
WideOrbit says its WO Programmatic TV “offers by far the largest pool of local broadcast TV advertising inventory available through a programmatic TV platform.” This inventory includes stations in all of the top 50 media markets and 181 markets overall, reaching more than 110 million households. The number of stations offering spots with WideOrbit is more than five times larger than the number stated by any other programmatic TV platform, it claims.
“It’s a tipping point for the local TV industry to have the vast majority of stations now offering inventory with programmatic platforms,” said Nick Waller, Gray Television EVP and co-COO. “We are optimistic that achieving critical mass will make our inventory more attractive to agencies looking for an efficient way to purchase broadcast TV at scale and to advertisers that want to supplement digital media campaigns with TV’s superior reach and impact.”
“I’ve been saying for 10 years that the tipping point for programmatic TV was about six months away. As we pass this milestone, we can now say that PTV’s day is finally here,” said Eric R. Mathewson, WideOrbit founder-CEO.
Mathewson continued: “As it joins the mainstream of linear TV transaction methods, media companies and ad buyers will find that programmatic is a win-win-win. Stations get a new complementary sales channel for incremental revenue, ad buyers will find it far easier to purchase local TV audiences at scale, and both sides will have ample opportunities to grow their overall profitability by reducing the cost of doing business together.”
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Comments (4)
Brian Bussey says:
January 4, 2018 at 10:21 am
Stations get a new complementary sales channel for incremental revenue
this is a myth. these dollars are far from new.. any buyer anywhere could buy spots on any station. all they had to do was call the station. where is revolution ?
Jenna Barson says:
January 4, 2018 at 1:14 pm
The WideOrbit PTV platform appeals to both new local advertisers and traditional local advertisers. We have dozens of new advertisers on the WO PTV platform and the number of new advertisers is growing rapidly every month. It allows a single Buyer to purchase more than 1000 stations with a single ‘click’ without picking up the phone thousands of times to negotiate all the details. The stations approve the advertisers, provide appropriate rates and chose to accept the bids. All of this workflow is tied directly into the WideOrbit Traffic system allowing for a streamlined approval, scheduling, posting, invoice and bill pay process. It is revolutionary and as it scales will be a dramatic improvement for both Buyers and Sellers of local television.
Jayson Siler says:
January 4, 2018 at 12:11 pm
“Programmatic” is a misnomer for this ad inventory. It will be “distress” inventory that stations can’t sell effectively for a variety of reasons. And participating stations will be paying a lower commission to WO than they would to a national rep.
Jenna Barson says:
January 4, 2018 at 12:46 pm
Hi… You are correct that the vast majority of non-WideOrbit ‘Programmatic Linear’ is a form of distressed arbitrage. In this case with WideOrbit’s PTV Direct solution, the Buyer is able to bid on All of the inventory, not just segmented distressed inventory. The station responds to the bids in the same manner in the WO PTV platform that they respond to any bid for inventory in the existing manual process.