January 25, 2023
ePort Electronic Media Buying Soars For TV Stations
- by Wayne Friedman , January 13, 2015
TV stations continue to move more to electronic buying and selling — but there's a long way to go. Some $4 billion was processed through ePort for TV stations -- up 125% from the previous year and nearly 70% higher over the previous election year, according to Strata, which manages the ePort system.
Overall, TV advertisers spend around $20 billion on average on TV stations in any given year.
Strata says now more than 1,600 television stations received electronic orders during the year from over 350 ad agencies across the country.
The ePort systems provide a two-way, electronic connection between buyers and sellers — a “programmatic” infrastructure. TV rep firms and stations not only process the order, but they can also process “makegood inventory for the buyer.
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In December, ePort had its third-best month ever — $437 million in new television orders. In 2011, Strata, in cooperation with TV station rep groups — Katz Media and Cox — took over responsibility for ePort.
Mike McHugh, vice president of Strata, stated that Strata would continue to leverage ePort "as it rolls out additional functionality this year."
The implication in this article is that the billings cited are ----or might be---a reflection of "programmatic" time buying, rather than mere order and make good processing. The two are miles apart and the odds are that all, or almost all, of these activities fall into the "paperwork" category, not the actual time buying function.