• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 19, 2006

Frank Maggio has spent much of the past year trying to shake up the way TV audiences are measured. Now he wants to change how TV advertising is bought and sold. In a move that is likely to win favor from advertisers seeking to develop an open market structure for buying media, Maggio this week will unveil a new system for buying TV ad time on his new ReacTV channel that utilizes an approach akin to Amazon.com.

"Authorized buyers would see every ad unit that's available and can click on it and buying and put it in a shopping cart," Maggio tells MediaDailyNews. When enough TV ad inventory is selected to meet an advertiser's gross rating point goals, Maggio says buyers will simply proceed to the system's checkout area, where the buy will be implemented.

The ingeniously simple approach comes as some major advertisers have been calling for a simple, open market approach to buying media. In an initiative first proposed by Wal-mart media exec Julie Roehm, a group of marketers are considering funding a multimillion test to see if they can buy TV more effectively and efficiently via an online trading system. That group has heard proposals from companies ranging from eBay to Google, but has yet to announce any specific plans to implement a test.

Maggio says he can offer an even simpler model, because of the relatively simple nature of ReacTV's advertising model.

Unlike most TV outlets that negotiate rates, ReacTV is offering a flat $25 cost per thousand based on a 100 percent guaranteed audience, and category exclusivity in each advertising pod.

Maggio says the online buying system would be ready on a "display" basis by the time ReacTV launches Aug. 1, and would go live shortly afterward.