• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 1, 2010

Spot television has its challenges these days. Abby Auerbach, executive and chief marketing officer of the Television Bureau of Advertising says some fundamental changes need to be made for the business to move forward.

First, TV has been primarily bought and sold under a cost per rating point basis. But that’s not the way the media world works with almost every platform â€" that being the cost per thousand viewer impressions, CPM. The business needs to move to this model.

Next, there should be a thirty-day cancellation of local TV buys, not the typical two week cancellation policy that exists today. All this causes an immense amount of unnecessary paperwork and will help to stabilize inventory supplies.

Auerbach also says HRA rules need to be eliminated -- the so-called higher rate advertiser rules. This happens when a higher paying advertiser typically pushes out a lesser paying advertiser, which caused those marketers problems in having to scramble to re-place their media buys.

One more rule that should be instituted â€" guaranteed delivery. Much of spot television isn’t guaranteed. Auerbach says this would be fairer to start this up across the board since this exists in other media.

All of this would help marketers achieve their goals of getting media impressions place -- in flight â€" not after a campaign intended start and end date has come and gone.

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