Scripps-Led Consortium Aims To Delivers Scale And Efficiency For CTV Political Advertisers

A group of local broadcasters led by The E.W. Scripps Co. has come together to serve political advertisers with “efficient and broad audience reach on connected TV platforms during what’s expected to be a record election-spending year.”

Cox Media Group, Capitol Broadcasting, Graham Media Group and other broadcasters are participating in the initiative.

“Collectively, we have a wall of inventory, and we’ve found a way to work together to make it easy for agencies to access that,” said Samantha Osborne, senior director of national sales for the Scripps Political CTV Consortium in Washington, D.C. “They can reach a high percentage of voters while making their own decisions but without having to work through numerous sales reps from different organizations. With the broadcasters we’ve assembled, we have billions of monthly premium connected TV impressions available for political advertisers.”

Experts project roughly $9 billion in spending in 2022, matching the presidential cycle of 2020, with as much as $1.8 billion of that expected to go to internet-delivered television platforms, or CTV.

Scripps said that in 10 states alone — Florida, California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan – $3.9 billion is projected to be spent on political advertising.

The Scripps Political CTV Consortium allows agencies to work with one representative to reach multiple publishers who have premium, guaranteed owned-and-operated inventory. Osborne said Scripps is exclusively working with Magnite, an independent omnichannel sell-side advertising platform, to make CTV inventory available to agencies and programmatic buyers.

“Magnite is excited to be powering the technology for the Scripps Political CTV Consortium,” said Mike Laband, senior vice president of CTV Platform for Magnite. “Working closely with Scripps and the consortium media owners, we are providing the market with a unique, scaled offering for political CTV ad investment.”

Officials from participating organizations say that local news is where voters go to be informed during election seasons. Objective local broadcast journalism provides access to audiences that political advertisers are trying to reach.

“There are times when it makes sense to work together to produce a new and innovative product for the best interest of customers,” said John Conway, vice president of WRAL Digital for Capitol Broadcasting. “This is one of those times when we can provide industry-leading service by collaborating.”