• by August 8, 2000

The merger of broadcastspots.com and mediapassage.com is expected to speed the current revolution in the media buying and selling industries by creating an end-to-end solution for the planning, placement, tracking and payment of media in all channels.

The new entity will execute (plan, place, bill and pay) over $500 million in U.S. media during 2000, company officials say.

For buyers, this merger is expected to allow the execution of virtually every step of the media planning and purchasing process in a single online resource - from obtaining market data, to qualitative and quantitative research and ratings, to media selection, purchasing, invoicing, reconciliation and payment.

From a single interface, media buyers would be able to view rate cards, access and purchase available inventory, and request proposals from 7,000+ newspapers, 10,000+ radio stations, 9,000+ consumer and trade magazines, 1,200+ TV stations.

For media sellers this merger increases the potential to sell inventory and generate revenue. By providing buyers everywhere with instant 24/7 access to media via an ordinary browser connection, the time zone or geographic barriers and certain costs of traditional communication that may have inhibited the buying/selling process will effectively be eliminated.

Additionally, the automation of invoicing and reconciliation functions will result in expediting the billing and payment processes.