WideOrbit, Magna and Tribune Team on Local Programmatic Buying

NEW YORK—Magna Global, WideOrbit and Tribune Media Co., announced the launch of WideOrbit’s WO Central, which offers programmatic targeting and automated buying to both local and national marketers.

In addition to Tribune Media, a member of the Magna Consortium, major local TV owners including Hearst, Meredith, Raycom, Scripps and Sinclair have agreed to participate in upcoming tests of WO Central’s functionality and performance.

Powered and developed by WideOrbit in collaboration with Magna and Tribune, the new technology introduces a live environment for trading linear television station inventory across customized geographic areas ranging from specific DMA footprints to total U.S. coverage.

The system incorporates and overlays direct automated feeds from Nielsen’s Local Buyer Reach (LBR) and IPG Mediabrands’ Audience Measurement Platform.

New to the market this year, Nielsen’s Local Buyer Reach gives IPG clients the ability to identify local audiences across 40-plus buyer categories in all 210 DMAs by linking proprietary Nielsen local television viewing data with actual consumer transactions and auto registrations. AMP, IPG’s propriety cross-platform data stack, merges client data with household level viewing data and online behavior to measure both ad exposure and effectiveness.

WideOrbit say it is the inventory and revenue optimization system for more than 70 percent of North American TV stations, 15 percent of radio stations and some 30 percent of cable nets.