SAN FRANCISCO — It owns dozens of local TV stations in 44 US markets, and several TV production companies besides – so how is Raycom Media adapting to the rapidly-changing world of TV ad sales?<\/p>\n
Beside a $3.6 billion merger<\/a> with Gray earlier this summer, the company has tapped WideOrbit,\u00a0a San Francisco-based company with a software platform that handles\u00a0 scheduling,\u00a0billing,\u00a0content management and\u00a0invoicing for TV ads around the US.<\/p>\n Specifically, Raycom is using the company’s programmatic-direct and open marketplace capabilities, to extend ad buying to non-traditional marketers.<\/p>\n “We’ve trained five dozen (sales) people on how to manage that,” says Raycom Media “A lot of the advertisers are folks who would traditionally not buy TV because of that friction.”<\/p>\n WideOrbit’s programmatic TV open marketplace\u00a0<\/a>lets ad buyers make automated, data-informed offers in more than 1,000 stations and networks.<\/p>\n So, who is buying?<\/p>\n “They’re people who don’t want to talk to local salespeople,” Pope concedes. “If they can just log in to a dashboard, press a couple buttons, place an order and they get impressions in a local newscast or local sporting event or network sporting event, that’s valuable inventory.”<\/p>\n For Raycom, WideOrbit also supports a private marketplace in which ad buyers can still use conventional GRPs to target ads.<\/p>\n
\nGM, central traffic operations Garrett Popein this video interview with Beet.TV. “As the offers we come in, we want to be able to react swiftly and to best serve our clients’ needs and these new revenue streams.<\/p>\n