Fox TV Stations In Programmatic Deal With WideOrbit
- by Wayne Friedman , July 26, 2017
Fox Television Stations has struck a deal to sell ad inventory with programmatic technology company WideOrbit.
Local Fox TV station ad inventory will be offered in three ways -- in an open marketplace for Fox Stations-controlled advertising inventory; as programmatic/automated transactions with selected buying partners; and with inventory integrated with CoreMedia Systems for direct-response ad buyers.
Fox has 28 TV stations in 17 markets, covering more than 37% of U.S. TV homes. The companies say Fox is the largest U.S. local TV broadcast group to commit to programmatic advertising sales.
“Based on our tests over the last year, we are convinced that programmatic advertising will be a complementary additional sales channel for our stations,” stated Jim Burke, president of sales of Fox Television Stations.
WideOrbit claims a programmatic TV footprint of 750+ stations reaching over 93% of U.S. homes and 270 million people.
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I have long believed that "programmatic" time buying, with critical modifications that allow the seller to submit alternative bids to the system if rejected initially---make some sense for spot TV, though not for most national buys. this is because there are only a small number of basic program genres or "local" fare that stations can offer---news and time in syndicated shows, mainly, along with some nationally aired content---the networks' early AM and late night shows, primarily. As there are great similarities in the demographic and product user profiles of the shows within these few genres, unlike the myriad of options available in national cable, the emphasis can be placed on cheap audience tonnage, which the computers should be good at. Since few national spot buyers pay premiums for fixed position placements and accept the stations' rotations, this, too, allows programmatic to cut down on wasteful human peperwork time and make these buys more efficient for the agencies---providing that the costs of going programmatic are held to reasonable levels. It will be interesting to see how this develops.