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The Television Bureau of Advertising plans to facilitate the spot buying and selling process by launching an “ebiz toolbox,” or online system that will allow buyers to submit orders electronically for TV avails.
The system, TVB ePort, will be backed by $5 million from the TVB - some of that money coming from the National Association of Broadcasters and some from local station groups, writes MediaPost. The TVB will oversee the building of the system over the next nine months. In the first quarter of 2008, buyers will be able to submit orders; soon after that, if all goes as expected, the process will allow for the processing of invoices and makegoods.
Eventually, the TVB hopes the ePort will turn the spot buying and selling process into a paperless operation.
According to Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith Broadcasting and TVB board chairman, there is strong broadcaster commitment to the project. “We are putting our money where our mouth is,” he is quoted as saying.
TVB president Chris Rohrs believes the system has the potential to revive the flagging spot business, as buyers have likely been put off by the complicated, paper-based process. But leading spot buyer Kathy Crawford of MindShare has said that an easier buying system would not necessarily increase her agency’s spending in the spot market, though it would at least simplify matters.
Unlike the eBay Media Marketplace that is being developed by marketers such as Wal-Mart and Revlon, ePort will not allow for electronic negotiation, which will have to continue in traditional fashion. The eBay Media Marketplace, which betas in March, will allow buyers and sellers to negotiate electronically. No networks have yet signed on to participate in the eBay marketplace.
TVB will be soliciting bids from technology vendors to build the system. It is unclear whether eBay will be considered.
ePort could be fully operational by 2009.
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