March 31 will be the last day for the unit that launched in 2014 to work with station groups, agencies and rep firms across the spot TV industry to build an automated television solution that optimizes advertising campaigns and enables workflow efficiencies and data-enhanced audience targeting. The company said it was “no longer sustainable.”
Growing Fees Slow Spot Automation Growth
Per-transaction fees and resistance by walled gardens are hampering the development of tools to streamline the complicated world of buying and selling spot TV advertising.
Spot Automation: A Timeline
A user’s guide to automation development at Hudson MX, ProvantageX, Videa and WideOrbit.
The open-sourced APIs include specifications for inventory, RFPs (avail requests), proposals (avail responses), orders, makegoods and pre- and post-logs, says Videa, a unit of Cox Media Group.
Ratings forecasts are important, said Videa President Shereta Williams. “When they are inaccurate, increased makegoods and more under-delivered spots can result.” The tool is available to all media agencies, even if they haven’t done business with the company.
Red Bee Media will provide Videa with textual metadata aimed at providing a comprehensive source for programming and ratings estimates for automated TV sales.
Exclusives
Automated Selling Is Coming — With A Price Tag
Developers of the software or platforms that make automated spot sales possible will be demanding a small percentage of the business they handle, possibly up to 1.5%. With broadcasters’ ringing up several billion in national spot sales each year, the automation fees could quickly run into tens of millions of dollars.
Executives also cite growing impact of automated buying and selling processes.
The new data is designed to provide media buyers and sellers with deep ad campaign and inventory insights.
Automated Spot Sales Picking Up Speed
The automation logjam is breaking up with companies like Hudson MX, Videa, WideOrbit and ProVantageX in play. The business has reached a critical mass, according to some observers. But with so many competitors, there’s the likelihood that there will be a winnowing down of platforms with time. And frictions remain to be ironed out — most notably handling makegoods automatically.
Videa, a “supply-side” programmatic marketplace for local TV advertising owned by Cox Media Group, this morning announced an important “demand-side” integration, plugging into Strata, a software and systems provider enabling ad agencies to plan and buy a variety of media. As part of the integration, the companies said media buyers will be able to to purchase VIdea’s inventory of “full-schedule, local TV advertising” directly via Strata’s agency media-buying workflow software.
Videa Debuts Automated TV Ad Platform
The new marketplace provides stations, agencies and brands a simplified way to sell and buy local television station inventory at scale.
The Cox-backed platform signs new deals with television station groups Raycom and Scripps, DSPs TubeMogul, The Trade Desk and VideoAmp, and media tech company 4C.
Making Programmatic Broadcaster-Friendly
Vendors of programmatic supply-side platforms and technology are sensitive to broadcasters’ concerns about commoditizing valuable ad inventory, cannibalizing spot revenue and integration with sales and traffic software. This is Part II of a special report on TV sales. Part I, on the changing nature of TV selling, ran yesterday. See also an Open Mike on compensating new sales hires.
Videa’s programmatic TV advertising solution is powering a campaign for the PGA Tour Superstore opening in Birmingham, Ala.
Videa | Booth N2530-29 | Website: www.videa.tv Videa, a Cox-backed supply-side platform bringing automation and data-driven decision making to broadcast television, has entered into a multi-year partnership agreement with Videology, […]
Videa President Shereta Williams says that if TV doesn’t embrace programmatic online and other sales channels that are more focused on measurement, targeting, and attribution, it risks losing out to other mediums that do.
The automated ad firm chooses former Cox Reps execs Mary Barnas and Archie Gianunzio for their advertising sales, planning and buying experience coupled with deep agency and local television relationships.
