• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 6, 2007

The apparent death-knell for eBay Media Marketplace, the long-ballyhooed online buying and selling system for TV time, was foreshadowed at an industry conference last month. There, one of the most powerful buyers in the business--plus a top cable executive--forcefully declared the eBay-enabled exchange misguided, if not flat-out wrong.

And Thursday, after months of hype, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau--which essentially held the keys to launching the system--said the eBay Media Marketplace was a permanent no-go. The trade group's opposition was based on two points: The eBay functionality was flawed, and the system wasn't in step with the new age of media buying, where the focus is on complex multi-touchpoint deals, not peddling and purchasing spots.

CAB chief Sean Cunningham said his membership reviewed a pilot version of the system for a month. They found that its infrastructure fell short in making the intricacies of end-to-end buying and selling to be "either more effective or more efficient." Cunningham said it was "evidence of someone developing a system in eBay that, despite the best counsel of top buyers in the business, was just not getting the scope of this business in terms of both current and future practice."

Top buyers on a steering committee advocating at least a test of the system included Carat's Ray Warren, Zenith's Peggy Green and DraftFCB's Bill Cella. They were joined by a cadre of marketers pushing for the system, including Toyota, Home Depot and Wal-Mart--which spent some $467.1 million last year on cable TV, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

Cunningham said he was not concerned that those marketers would balk and look to spend dollars on other media. But he said CAB members didn't take lightly the influence and wealth of the buy-siders pushing the system--a reason it made efforts over the last year to get it off the ground.

"We hung in there as long as we did out of respect for the group of clients and agency buyers that wanted to make this happen," he added.

A statement from the steering committee said it was "surprised at the CAB's unwillingness to continue the dialog on this topic." But the group reiterated its support for eBay's work, and suggested it would continue its efforts, whether CAB was in sync or not.

"We are still bullish about the system that has been produced," the committee said in the statement. (eBay did not respond to a request for comment.) "It has uniquely combined expertise from eBay on the dynamic marketplace architecture, senior marketers and media-buying experts. We will continue to pursue cable networks and are confident that the eMedia exchange will have traction with cable and other media."

But the ship may have started sinking two weeks ago, when the sales chief for one of the network groups, Turner's David Levy, said an evaluation had begun. "From what I've seen so far, this is not the answer," said Levy. At the same event, Starcom's CEO John Muszynski called it "a waste of time" before a room full of advertisers.

Cunningham said a lack of uniformity among the buying community, plus the fact that dozens of other marketers did not express an interest about going forward, contributed to his group backing out. A cadre of cable networks that included ESPN, Lifetime, A&E, the Turner group and others had looked at the system since early March, before opting not to participate. The CAB made the decision this week to pull out, Cunningham said.

Buyers and marketers were eager to launch the system--in part because it would save them time in executing the run-of-the-mill purchasing of spots. It would also allow them more time to craft multifaceted, multi-platform deals. The CAB said one reason it backed out was that the eBay system didn't allow for one-on-one dealings.

Committee members repeatedly emphasized they weren't interested in using the system to buy prime-time programming, such as "The Closer" or "Monday Night Football," but perhaps overnight avails on The Biography Channel or Discovery Health. Cunningham said his members saw no "class of inventory" that would make sense.

The eBay system has roots in a much-discussed speech then-Chrysler executive Julie Roehm gave two years ago, calling for a NASDAQ-style media buying-selling system. At the time, she hinted about deploying it in the upfront, but said Thursday that was simply intended to draw attention to the initiative. "The upfront was more of a tactic because when you talk about the upfront, everyone pays attention," Roehm said.

Instead, she said, her intent--like those expressed by committee members--was partly to free networks from the time involved with moving lower-tier inventory. "If the 'extra space' could be automated and allow them to spend more time with clients to build other programs, that would generate more revenue for them," she said.

Cunningham said CAB members remain optimistic about some sort of e-marketplace. "Our interest in enabling an electronic future is evergreen," he said. "This eBay product won't get that done." The CAB declined to comment on what initiatives it may pursue.

Word of the impending collapse of the eBay system comes days after Google and EchoStar announced a deal where the Internet giant would bring an automated system for buying, selling and measuring effectiveness of TV time on 125 channels on Dish Network. And digital marketing force DoubleClick said it would start an online marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of Internet display advertising, partly because sellers "are being left with significant volumes of unsold inventory."

"It's happening," said Roehm, who continues to work on online media trading. "Yes, you're going to find some media companies resistant and others who are progressive, but they will only resist for so long."