• by Wayne Friedman , September 7, 2011

The slow-growing world of TV station electronic billing looks to get a boost with two of the nation's largest TV station sales rep companies taking over ePort, a prominent industry-supported system.

Katz Television Group, a division of the Katz Media Group, and Cox Reps, a division of Cox Media Group, will take over the financial oversight and the marketing direction of ePort, a software program developed by media buying and selling systems developer Strata.

The Chicago-based Strata created ePort in 2007 for the then TV advertising group, the Television Bureau of Advertising, now known as TVB. Local TV media buyers and TV station sellers could send or receive business transactions electronically. For decades, media agencies have complained about the mountains of paper generated when it comes to TV station buying and selling of advertising.

In four years, ePort says it has processed more than $2 billion through its electronic transaction system. This is just a sliver of the approximately $16 billion that TV advertisers spend on local TV stations annually.

Leo MacCourtney, president of Eagle Television Sales, a division of Katz, stated: "Local television continues to expand its impact and reach through broadcast, online and mobile platforms. Further improving our e-business capabilities will help to facilitate and sustain that growth."

The companies say ePort makes transactions more accurate for the nearly 75% of local broadcast business conducted via a paper process. The ePort system will continue to complement the still-dominant local TV buying/selling system, Donovan's DARE system.

Strata will now offer technical support activities with Katz TV and Cox Reps for ePort, and plans to add more functionality, making local broadcast television advertising selling and buying easier to transact.