• by Wayne Friedman , September 15, 2021

Nexstar Media Group is joining other big TV station groups in starting up Stellar, a local TV-focused-OTT app advertising-selling platform.

Nexstar Digital says the data-driven audience platform will give advertisers easy access to purchase digital and linear TV advertising. It can package Nexstar’s 199 owned-or-operated TV stations, 120 local TV websites and 284 local news/weather apps.

A number of TV station groups have formed these advertising sales platforms -- for their owned linear TV stations and websites, as well as third-party streaming platforms looking to expand the reach of their traditional, legacy TV business.

One of the newest is FLX, which came from the Fox Television Stations group earlier this year. It has the ability to package advertising of local TV stations with 150 OTT/CTV platforms.

Other TV station operations include Tegna’s Premion; Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Compulse; Cox Media Group’s Gamut Total, and Scripps Octane, from The E.W. Scripps Co.

Nexstar touts early results for Stellar with a number of clients.

Karen Brophy, president of Nexstar Digital, stated that financial services, retail and quick-service restaurants have seen increases as much as 40 times return on ad spend, 30% more in online orders and 40% gain in revenue on a per-order basis.

Nexstar says Stellar will use “proprietary predictive technology” to determine where a brand’s advertising will perform best against campaign goals, context and content.