Empower Partners With Scripps, Adds Local TV To Programmatic Repertoire

Empower MediaMarketing, an independent media agency, this week announced its plans to allow advertisers to buy local broadcast TV inventory via programmatic channels. Empower has partnered with the E.W. Scripps Company and invested in Savveo, an ad tech startup focused on local media, to put the pipes in place.

Local programmatic ad inventory from Scripps-owned TV stations is expected to be available to Empower clients by the second quarter of 2015, per a release.

“We will make local programmatic buying and selling in linear TV a reality in 2015,” stated Michael O’Brien, VP of sales at Scripps.

It already is a reality -- Mondelez bought local Super Bowl ads last month, for example -- but it’s still a nascent corner of the industry.

“We are building within a burgeoning ecosystem,” stated Shafi Mustafa, co-founder and CEO of Savveo. Mustafa added: “The shift to programmatic for traditional media is inevitable.”

Empower also says it’s building a data management platform (DMP) that will allow its clients to buy the local TV spots using audience-level data.

Empower says it is working on additional partnerships with broadcast and cable companies.

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