Digital-TV Convergence Realigns Sales Teams, Complicates Execution: WideOrbit’s Hedrick

The biggest pain point for media companies with regard to cross-media campaigns remains execution. “The execution systems for every single media type may be different,” says WideOrbit’s Susie Hedrick. “You have a different ad server for digital versus streaming versus TV. The more that fragments, the more work there is to do on the back […]

 
 

Fox’s Callahan Discusses The Challenges Of Ad Loads, Choices Across Platforms

While the “pendulum swing has happened” regarding the continued shift to connected-TV devices, it’s trickier to adjust ad loads than on traditional linear programming. “Where does it work and where can you deploy it I think is still a bit of a challenge,” says Fox Networks Group’s Dan Callahan. For advanced targeting of TV audiences, […]

 
 

WideOrbit Integrates With OpenAP, Seeks Cross-Platform Impression ‘Fluidity’

Having helped its clients leverage the Viacom Vantage advanced targeting product, WideOrbit has expanded the concept to the OpenAP consortium, of which Viacom is a founding member. “What we’re doing with OpenAP is integrating it into our products so you can actually build a rate card against an OpenAP target,” says Ashley Barretto, GM, WO […]

 
 

ECN’s Tietze Surveys The ‘Last Mile’ Of Commercial Scheduling, Delivery

Once the “gorgeous creative asset” also known as a television commercial has been birthed, it still needs to be scheduled and delivered. With more delivery points than ever, technology that’s a half-century old is clogging up the process, says ECN President and CEO Angela Tietze. Representing more than 90% of the country’s top advertisers, ECN […]

 
 

Transparent Partnerships Will Drive Advanced TV: Schireson’s Scoles

Five years ago, advanced television “wasn’t a thing.” It was just starting to come into existence “and now this is a core piece of many publishers’ product offerings,” says Travis Scoles, a Partner at advertising and marketing data science firm Schireson. Where advanced TV goes in the next five years is one of the topics […]

 
 

Automation, Standardization Are Technology Drivers At AMC Networks

Television programmers are not only in a race for consumer attention amid a glut of content. They’re also trying to automate their systems to keep pace with the demands of buyers seeking digital and linear convergence. “We’re actually going through a huge change right now on the technology side,” says Robyn Goldman, Relationship Manager, AMC […]

 
 

At 50% Of Domestic TV Impressions, OpenAP Expecting More Members: Viacom’s Halley

Representing 50% of the domestic television impression supply, the OpenAP audience-targeting consortium has reached critical mass and created a uniform currency around advanced advertising, says Viacom’s John Halley. Phase Two will see more publishers joining OpenAP as it works on ease-of-use and other improvements for media buyers. In this interview with Beet.TV at the recent […]

 
 

Ad Buyers ‘In Second Innings’ With Full-Attribution TV Techniques: A+E’s Ernst

What if your TV ad could follow you from the living room, to the bedroom, to the restaurant? In 2018, that is the reality that many TV companies are now engaged in – ensuring that advertisers can get guaranteed outcomes, like driving footfall from people who watched an ad. And it’s one which A+E Networks […]

 
 

Ad Agencies Are “Cockroaches, Not Dinosaurs:” Pivotal’s Wieser

If you believe some of the hyperbole, as new ad tech and tools give brands greater ability to plan and buy for themselves, the role of the ad agency is now over. Disintermediation is the order of the day. A recent ANA survey showed 35% of marketers expanded their in-house media buying capabilities in 2017 […]

 
 

WideOrbit’s 2019 Focus: Open Systems, Digital-Linear Convergence And Data Science

In order for digital and linear media to converge, so too must technology. This is why WideOrbit Chief Product Officer Will Offeman has been busily melding the company’s various acquisitions in the digital space and “marrying it up with the linear side.” Approaching 2019, WideOrbit is working on three initiatives, Offeman explains in this interview […]

 
 

Advanced TV Won’t Grow TV Ad Spend: Pivotal’s Wieser

AdAge called him “the most quoted man in advertising” – but what does Brian Wieser call the impact of TV advertising technologies? Underwhelming, it seems. In this video interview with Beet.TV, Pivotal Research senior analyst Brian Wieser, who opines on the media business, says advanced TV targeting opportunities will do little to arrest an overall […]

 
 

For Client Tech Integrations, It Pays To Be Flexible: WideOrbit’s Swift

SAN FRANCISCO – The complexity of transacting local radio and television has long been a challenge. Now that it’s further complicated by data and digital technology advances, a one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t cut it, according to Tim Swift, VP of Platform Services at WideOrbit. So although WideOrbit provides the “system of record” for much of […]

 
 

Raycom’s Pope Leans In to WideOrbit’s Marketplace

SAN FRANCISCO — It owns dozens of local TV stations in 44 US markets, and several TV production companies besides – so how is Raycom Media adapting to the rapidly-changing world of TV ad sales? Beside a $3.6 billion merger with Gray earlier this summer, the company has tapped WideOrbit, a San Francisco-based company with a […]

 
 

Local TV Has Power, Relevance In Linear And Digital: WideOrbit’s Offeman

SAN FRANCISCO – When WideOrbit was founded 18 years ago, the television universe was a whole lot simpler yet it was still too complicated at the local level. “There needed to be a solid foundation and system of record across the industry” that WideOrbit set out to create, says the company’s EVP of Engineering, Will […]

 
 

Local TV Still Matters: Lilly CFO O’Hagan

SAN FRANCISCO — It may not quite be mom-and-pop, but it sure is father-and-son. Lilly Broadcasting is the US local broadcasting company previously run by George Lilly and son Brian, now by Brian and brother Kevin. With operations in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Hawaii and Michigan, Lilly is keeping things small. But finance chief Wade […]

 
 

WideOrbit ‘Backbone’ Spans National Cable, Local Radio And TV

SAN FRANCISCO – Over the past two decades, there’s been a lot of progress made in removing friction from the local television and radio buying process. But it typically doesn’t pay for agencies to buy local media, so even more automation is on the way, according to WideOrbit’s Eric Matthewson. WideOrbit was founded 18 years […]

 
 

Revenue Analytics’ Cross On WideOrbit ‘Marriage’ & Predictive Analytics

SAN FRANCISCO — What happens when you combine two media analytics problems with aspirations on driving growth for their clients? A perfect “marriage”, says one of the parties involved. Revenue Analytics is the Atlanta company aiming to drive revenue. WideOrbit is a San Francisco-based company with a software platform that handles  scheduling, billing, content management and invoicing for […]

 
 

Hearst’s Lustgarten Explains The Importance Of TIP Initiative For Local Broadcast

SAN FRANCISCO – As national television networks are coming together to standardize audience targeting, local broadcasters know they need to make the buying and selling of their inventory easier to execute. For Hearst Television and several others, one vehicle is the TIP Initiative hosted by the trade group TVB. “Local TV still has the majority […]

 
 

WideOrbit Connect: Where Broadcaster Collaboration Meets Convergence

SAN FRANCISCO – As are their national counterparts, local television broadcasters are trying to come to grips with the pace of digital-linear convergence. But if they collaborate with one another, the technological tide is flowing in their direction. So says Bruce Roberts, President of WideOrbit, in this interview with Beet.TV at the platform provider’s WideOrbit […]

 
 

With FCC Approval, ATSC 3.0 Is ‘Whole New World’ For Broadcasters, Pearl TV’s Schelle

SAN FRANCISCO – Lighthouses will soon be popping up all over the United States, but they won’t have anything to do with nautical navigation. The new facilities will bring to life ATSC 3.0, the Internet-protocol, over-the-air television transmission standard that will give broadcasters new ways of delivering and monetizing content. “Think of this new platform […]