NAB 2018

TIP Initiative Boosts Electronic Ad Deals

Major TV broadcasters and media agencies support the industry’s development of open standards-based business interfaces for local TV.

The TIP Iniative (Television Interface Practices), a consortium of local television broadcasters including Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Tegna, Tribune Media and Hearst Television, today released an updated framework for standards-based transaction interfaces, highlighting the progress the work group has made toward its goal of accelerating electronic advertising transactions for local TV broadcasters and their media agency partners.

Streamlining the advertising buying and selling process and making standardized, modern transaction interfaces available are keys to enabling future growth and innovation in the local broadcast television industry. To solve this industry-wide challenge and accelerate system interoperability, executives from the largest U.S. broadcast TV groups collaborated and in late 2017 launched the TIP Initiative. TIP’s mission is to create a coalition of system providers to work with buyers and sellers to develop and implement the technical framework and standards necessary to streamline transaction workflows for local broadcast television through standards-based open APIs.

“Members of the TIP Initiative share a strong commitment to accelerating the next phase of growth and innovation for the local broadcast television industry,” stated Perry Sook, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of Nexstar Media Group, Inc. “Embracing technology and developing new innovative frameworks that eliminate the complexity of the buying and selling process is critical to strengthening local broadcast television’s long-term competitive position. While there is more work to be done, we are energized by the alignment of agencies and broadcasters toward our common goal of creating a more efficient marketplace for local television advertising transactions.”

In the first quarter of 2018, TIP engaged more than 20 systems providers, media agencies and broadcasters to collaborate on the development of an open standards-based framework for the system-to-system interchange of transactional information.

TVB, the trade association representing local broadcast television, continues to serve as a repository for TIP’s work and provides open access for industry partners. The consortium’s second technical whitepaper is available at www.tvb.org/TIP.

“The TIP Initiative is excited to release our updated framework, which we’ve made available to all vendors, media agencies and broadcasters for their input,” said Chris Ripley, president-CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group. “Establishing an efficient and nimble market is necessary for our industry to evolve toward an ATSC 3.0 future and preference will be given to system vendors that deliver this capability for us.  As we continue to refine the framework and engage vendors to design and test interfaces, it is important for buyers and sellers to require open interface standards.”

BRAND CONNECTIONS

“Media agencies and local broadcasters are fully aligned in developing open standards-based solutions for efficient automated buying and selling of local spot inventory,” stated Frank Friedman, president of local investment at Publicis Media. “Local broadcast television consistently delivers measurable results for our clients and eliminating transaction friction will allow us to execute more targeted advertising campaigns that reach local audiences at scale. As such, we look forward to continuing our support of the TIP Initiative.”

“TIP’s ongoing collaborative effort is a major step forward toward creating a more efficient advertising product that political advertisers are demanding,” said Adam Stoll, president of Target Enterprises. “There is strong demand for local spot inventory, and with the TIP Initiative, agencies and broadcasters are embracing the automation necessary to enable new transaction models to emerge.”

TIP Initiative participants will share their vision for automation and the challenges to getting there at the 2018 NAB Show panel, “How the Local TV Ecosystem is Streamlining the Transaction Workflow,” on Tuesday, April 10, at 10:40 a.m. For more information, please visit www.nab18.mapyourshow.com.

 Read all of TVNewsCheck‘s NAB 2018 news here.


Comments (0)

Leave a Reply