• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, Tameka Kee , August 10, 2007

A second network has inked a six-figure deal via the eBay-enabled online media marketplace. TV One, an emerging network targeting African-Americans, put the final touches on a scatter deal with Home Depot this week covering the fourth quarter.

Major cable networks, through their trade group, said they had no interest in selling inventory on eBay Media Marketplace. But the smaller TV One decided it had nothing to lose--and the opportunity to gain business it wouldn't normally be able to garner.

Ad sales chief Keith Bowen said such thinking explains the deal with Home Depot. The marketer was represented by Initiative in the negotiations. "I felt like we were getting a seat at the adult table," said Bowen, a former Turner executive. "It gave us an opportunity at a much grander level to compete for business."

Home Depot and Initiative did not provide comment.

On the what's-to-lose, if-you-can-just-say-no side, Bowen said TV One engaged in negotiations via the exchange with another agency--but in the end, opted not to make a deal. In that instance, it appeared the buyer was looking to the exchange to purchase time at deeply discounted prices. It was "below market and wasn't a place where we should be right now," he said.

TV One joins Oxygen in cutting deals via the system. An eBay representative would not disclose which--or if--other networks are participating. Agencies Initiative and Universal McCann (which did the Oxygen deal for client Intel) are involved; both are part of Interpublic, whose influential media executive Bill Cella has favored the exchange from the get-go. Although Carat and Zenith are other agencies confirmed to be participating, eBay wouldn't release others.

On the marketing side, HD joins Intel, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard--three tech companies--in participating, with their agencies executing the process.

How the exchange will ultimately function--assuming it stays in operation--is unclear. One of its raisons d'être is to ease and speed deal-making through the Web-based application. Although Bowen said the groundwork for the Home Depot deal was laid online, some 15% was still conducted via the age-old phone.

Furthermore, the exchange does not appear to accelerate the deal-making at a jaw-dropping rate. The TV One and Oxygen deals took about three weeks each to finalize. (Since eBay provides the backbone, the exchange has been tabbed as an auction. While it has some of those elements, it is principally a platform that leads to one-on-one negotiations rather than a wild bidding process.)

eBay says it is pleased the exchange has gotten off the ground after the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau seemed to guarantee its downfall. In April, the CAB issued a surprise, terse statement declaring its roster of cable networks--the system was looking to start in the national cable area--would not buy or sell inventory on the system. (Some prominent agency executives were also opposed.)

The CAB cited functionality problems and the system being unable to operate successfully within the increasingly complex model of deal-making, which involves multilayered, multiplatform aspects extending far beyond 30-second spots. There was also concern that the system could turn networks' inventory into a commodity, leading to lower pricing. (Both Oxygen and TV One are CAB members, but broke from its position.)

In an e-mail, the eBay rep said the company is "very appreciative of the participation and contributions of the participating networks, agencies and marketers. [It] continues to welcome others that would like to have a hand in helping us develop new functionality required to make this marketplace a more useful adjunct to their existing business." The rep said eBay is looking for buyers and sellers to offer input to improve the system after they've given it a whirl.

At TV One--which is three-and-a-half years old and in some 39 million homes--Bowen said another reason he was eager to sign on was a belief that some sort of online exchange is "imminent" in the business, even if it doesn't involve eBay, and wanted to be conversant in the arena. Bowen said the current eBay offering might work best for direct-response advertisers, which are looking to pick up low-priced, unused, last-minute inventory rooted simply in supply-demand-based negotiations.

One of TV One's minority stakeholders is Comcast--Radio One, the large radio broadcaster targeting African-Americans, serves as the managing partner. Comcast's majority-owned networks group, which includes E! and Versus, was among the entities that urged the CAB to take a stance against the system.

"Had TV One been 21 years old and fully distributed, we may have made a different decision, but we're an emerging network," Bowen said.

Home Depot's willingness to engage in deal-making is hardly a surprise. Its CMO Roger Adams expressed frustration in April that major networks walked away, and indicated that the retailer would be open to driving business to networks that would break rank. "If it's a network we're not advertising with, it would be a great way to get on our radar screen," he said.

Home Depot is not a first-time advertiser on TV One, although Bowen said the deal gave the network revenue it would not have gotten heretofore on the open market.