• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 12, 2019

Several of the ad industry’s biggest media-buying agencies have begun notifying local broadcasters that effective next month, they need to begin using a new technology platform for processing their local TV advertising buys.

In letters sent to station groups and their reps in the past week, at least two big media shops -- IPG Mediabrands’ UM and Initiative units, and Dentsu Aegis Network’s Amplifi -- requested that their sales counterparts begin working with startup Hudson MX to “accept orders, submit makegoods, and provide station logs leveraging TIP (or TVB) compliant APIs or interfaces.”

The agencies, along with other big shops, said they plan to begin “piloting” their local TV ad-buying orders and makegoods through Hudson MX beginning in July to streamline their workflow and automate their media buying through the new platform.

The new system, which has been in operating as a “stealth” beta for more than a year, effectively competes with the ad industry’s long-established media-buying processing systems -- principally MediaOcean and Strata -- but Hudson MX will integrate with those legacy systems, which also manage things like bill-paying, and other media planning and buying processes as well.

In a press release officially announcing its launch on Tuesday, Hudson MX included endorsements from executives at Horizon Media and IPG Mediabrands’ Magna unit, citing the “speed and efficiency” and the ability of the new system to automate their TV advertising buys end-to-end in a way the legacy systems could not.

“Our early success demonstrates that agencies are committed to investing in software that positions their buyers for the future of local TV,” Hudson MX CEO and Founder JT Batson said in a statement, adding that he founded the firm because “agencies are demanding a solution.”

Batson is a veteran of media industry technology and finance businesses and previously was the head of digital for MediaOcean precursor Donovan Data Systems, the granddaddy of Madison Avenue’s legacy media-buying systems.

In its release, Hudson MX claims its “BuyerAssist” platform already has been used to process “$2 billion of local media buys for 30 leading agencies in 210 markets, servicing 294 national advertisers.”