Sinclair, Nexstar, Tegna and Tribune Media have formed a coalition to encourage the development of standards-based interfaces for buying local television advertising.
The TV Interface Practices (TIP) Initiative plans to reduce transactional friction in the buying process by pushing for interoperability and a system-to-system electronic process that will replace manual processes.
To that end, the group has contacted more than a dozen local TV ad transaction systems providers and proposed a set of APIs built to support the electronic transfer of “buy” transactional data. Local TV ad trade association TVB said it will provide a repository for the TIP Initiative’s work and open access for industry partners.
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“The goal of the TIP initiative is to accelerate local TV interoperability by creating a coalition of system providers to work with buyers and sellers to develop and implement streamlined transaction workflows using standards-based open APIs,” said Perry Sook, chairman, president and CEO of Nexstar Media and also the chairman of TVB, in a statement. “To sustain local television’s advantages across all screens and devices, we must work together as an industry to create a more efficient marketplace for advertisers to access local TV inventory in a manner that is cost effective for the buyer, while maintaining the integrity of our product. By encouraging broadcasters, advertisers and others to join the TIP Initiative and participate in this important, ongoing collaborative effort we will improve our competitiveness with other media and deliver more brand safe solutions to advertisers and brands.”
“Many of our advertising agency partners have told us they are unable to leverage our valuable television ad inventory because outdated processes leave them with little or no margin to support a local spot buy,” said Chris Ripley, president and CEO of Sinclair, in a statement. “The TIP Initiative demonstrates the industry’s shared commitment to working together with technology providers and advertising partners to develop open standards-based solutions for efficient automated buying and selling of broadcast TV spot inventory. In addition, advertising and programming content monetization options will expand with Next-Gen TV, giving broadcasters the ability to deliver targeted campaigns to advertisers that reach local audiences at scale. For our industry to quickly and effectively optimize this opportunity, while ensuring transparency, it is important for us to collaborate on this effort ahead of the adoption of ATSC 3.0.”