NEW YORK
(click thumbnail)Abby Auerbach, executive vice president, TVBAs the local television station's broadcast platform expands to encompass HDTV, multiple DTV subchannels, the stations' Web sites, and mobile, broadcasters recognize that there is a critical need to change the way they manage their spot TV advertising business.
Until now, processing orders for spot buys has involved tons of paperwork; typing in sales orders into a computer; as well as calling and faxing information to customers. But TVB ePort promises to remedy the situation by providing an "e-business digital platform" over which sales orders, invoices, and other transactions move electronically between broadcasters and their trading partners, including advertising agencies, media buyers, and advertisers.
Spearheaded by the Television Bureau of Advertising, TVB ePort is currently in development and should be ready to carry the "paper work" associated with TV spot orders electronically by the fourth quarter of this year.
"This paperwork has been a time-consuming process that can introduce human error and delay the receipt of payments due to discrepancies," said Abby Auerbach, executive vice president of TVB in New York. "As broadcasting opportunities expand exponentially to include HDTV, DTV sub-channels, the stations' Web sites, and even mobile, we have reached a point where managing these increasingly complex sales transactions has become virtually impossible without an electronic process."
BACKED BY BROADCASTERS
According to Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith Broadcasting and chairman of the TVB board, there is very strong broadcaster commitment to TVB ePort. The Meredith station group is comprised of 14 stations nationwide, including WGCL CBS 46 in Atlanta; KVVU-Fox 5 in Las Vegas; KPHO CBS 5 Phoenix; and KPDX-CBS 49 in Portland, Ore. Meredith claims that more than 10 million households tune into a Meredith-owned station each day; and the stations' Web sites attract 1.3 million unique visitors and 12 million page views per month.
"For our company, we look at ePort as the answer," Karpowicz said. "As we move our content onto different platforms--our HD and DTV channels, Web site, and mobile--we want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to take advantage of the great value that the Meredith TV stations bring to the market.
"So to the extent that TVB ePort facilitates that," he said, "and makes it an easier proposition for agencies and media buyers to use Meredith TV stations, as well as all local TV stations, we think that's something that we should get behind. If TVB ePort can facilitate all of the functions that are now faxed or emailed... and that create more paperwork... I think it makes us a more attractive vehicle for agencies and their clients."
When asked if advertising customers would be able to use ePort to peer into a station's commercial inventory, Karpowicz said that it's important to broadcasters that the TV spot sales process remain a one-to-one negotiation between the TV station rep and the agency/client.
"We certainly don't want to commoditize our inventory," Karpowicz said. "I think that if you went in that direction, that's what you'd be heading towards. What we're talking about is that everything that happens after the negotiation, after the buy is made, would go through TVB ePort, including the sales orders and invoices. Our hope is that TVB ePort would eliminate discrepancies and bring consistency to the process for everyone."
WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT
ePort also has the full backing and support of the NAB.
"NAB is providing a significant amount of initial financing for this initiative," said Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of media relations for NAB. "We want to do as much as we can to preserve and enhance local advertising opportunities for our member stations.
"[ePort] is an idea put forth by TVB, and we took a look at it and decided that it was a worthy use of some NAB monies, and we look forward to seeing some great success with the program," Wharton said. "NAB recognized the potential for strengthening TV advertising opportunities within local stations for the future."
According to Auerbach, the estimated cost to develop the platform is approximately $5 million. NAB provided the initial funding to launch the project and broadcasters are expected to support TVB ePort into the future. TVB ePort will be free to advertisers.
The key to ePort is that it is an open standards-based solution that can be used by any traffic or sales system. And it is accessible by small market stations as well as large market network stations and affiliates.
"It will also dovetail with any other open standards-based initiatives being developed in the marketplace, such as the '4A's E-Biz for Media' initiative." The "4A's," which stands for The American Association of Advertising Agencies, is facilitating e-business across all media through its "E-Biz for Media" effort.
Unlike the 4A's initiative, TVB's ePort is focused specifically on local television digital assets and local broadcasters have gotten behind the cause.
"In fourth quarter 2006, many broadcasters got together and said we want to support a break-out solution for e-business and we're going to fund it," Auerbach said.
In light of the broadcasters' solidarity, Auerbach said, "software vendors then had the confidence to go ahead and invest their own resources to modify their sales and traffic systems to support ePort."
AUTOMATION PARTNERS
One vendor that stepped up to the plate to extend its software products to support ePort is VCI Solutions, a Springfield, Mass.-based developer of sales, traffic, accounting, and automation software for the broadcast industry. According to Lowell Putnam, CEO and president, ePort is consistent with the company's goals to develop new, innovative products that give their clients better business planning and operational tools.
"VCI is committed to helping our customers gain a greater competitive advantage in the marketplace," he said. "Spot TV is facing increased competition and fragmentation of ad revenue. Making it easier and simpler to do business not only helps keep revenue but can also reduce costs and allow sales to focus on sales, not order administration. ePort represents a great new vehicle to help stations address their core customer base, regional and local business."
VCI recently participated in TVB's "schema" workgroup along with other traffic software vendors, including Harris, OSI, and Wide Orbit. On the buying side, the working group included Data Tech, Donovan Data Systems, Media Plex, Strata, and Arbitron. The schema defines the manner in which all of the data will be organized and transmitted. Currently in phase one of the development efforts, TVB has hired media technologist Click It Solutions to complete the schema work.
Once it is known which fields will carry which data elements, all of the documents related to TV spot and stations' multiplatform buys will have a consistent presentation and structure across the board. This means that a traffic and operations system could automatically take information from the operations log and populate the ePort fields with the run times, date, spot name, program bought, and other data. This report could then be sent electronically via ePort to the media buyer to confirm that spots ran as scheduled.
The ultimate goal for ePort is to have all of the electronic transactions moving in XML, but since this computer language is not yet widely supported, ePort will begin by enabling users to download and ingest the documents in three different formats: XML, Excel, or .pdf. ePort will then serve as an electronic conduit through which these electronic transactions and documents can be exchanged in a uniform manner whether the ad buy includes the station's HDTV or DTV channels, well as its Internet and mobile "channels."
"We believe firmly that local broadcast television is the ideal medium for geo-targeted advertising" Auerbach said. "But all of the paperwork is becoming detrimental. If we can make the sales process less costly and cumbersome, this will free up time that broadcasters can now spend developing their business."
