Contenders in Automated Selling

By Janet Stilson | February 6, 2015 | 11:23 a.m. ET.

AdMore, launched in 2013, is an outgrowth of RevShare, which specializes in direct response sales. Individual stations within the Tribune, Sinclair and Gannett groups are among AdMore’s clients.

AudienceXpress, owned by Visible World, has largely been involved with avails on cable networks and online since its founding in 2013. Backers include WPP along with Time Warner, Comcast and Viacom. In early 2014, its officials said they expected to enter the spot TV space by year’s end. They did not respond to an interview request for this story.

Clypd has been in business since 2012 and focuses on automating TV in general, both broadcast and cable. Investors include Tribeca Venture Partners, Transmedia Capital and Boston Seed Capital. Its executives did not respond to requests for interviews.

Simulmedia was founded in 2009 and is primarily involved with using automated systems to identify under-valued avails on cable networks. Its CEO, Dave Morgan, says he expects the company will start serving the spot TV market in early 2015. Investors include Avalon Ventures, Time Warner Investments and Allen & Co.

Rubicon Project is publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange and is largely devoted to online automated sales today, but is expected to join the spot fray. Its executives remain vague on when that’s likely to occur.

Videa is owned by Cox Media Group and is designed to serve the spot TV marketplace. It began beta tests with three buying agencies and five broadcast groups in late 2014. Among them are Starcom MediaVest, Carat, Cox’s station group, Raycom and Gannett. It intends to officially launch in mid-2015.

BRAND CONNECTIONS

WO Programmatic-TV is a partnership between ad traffic and revenue management company WideOrbit, Tribune Media Co. and IPG Mediabrands’ Magna Global media agency. Raycom, Hearst, Scripps and Sinclair are participating in tests, and the system is expected to launch around the end of first quarter 2015. Recently, WO Programmatic-TV announced a partnership with TubeMogul, whereby WO will help meet the digital video demands of advertisers on the TubeMogul programmatic platform, which is specific to the buy side.

This story originally appeared in TVNewsCheck’s Executive Outlook, a quarterly print publication devoted to the future of broadcasting. Subscribe here. Read the other stories in the Winter 2015 issue here.