/ 09.07.2011 12:00AM
Katz and Cox Take Over ePort
NEW YORK: Katz and Cox are taking over management of ePort, the online ad
marketplace launched by the Television Bureau of Advertising three years ago.
The platform had just surpassed $1 billion in sales last summer when the TVB
decided to seek operational partners for it.
Katz Television Group and Cox Reps, a division of Cox Media Group, said today
that they worked out a collaboration with Strata, the Chicago firm that created
the ePort electronic portal for the TVB. Cox and Katz will assume financial and
directional support of the ePort e-business platform.
Strata created ePort for TVB in 2007 as an electronic platform over which
buyers, local TV broadcasters or national representatives could send and
receive transactions. Local TV broadcasters and the rep community funded the
multi-million dollar development to make the process more accurate for the
nearly 75 percent of local broadcast business conducted on paper. To date,
ePort has processed more than $2 billion in transactions. The financial backing
from Cox and Katz will assure the platform’s continued operations.
ePort’s capabilities complement those of another platform, the Direct
Agency/Rep Exchange, or DARE, an electronic bridge between agencies and reps.
Cox and Katz were involved in taking national TV spot sales onto the DARE
platform.
Strata will now resume technical support activities with Katz TV and Cox Reps.
Working together, Katz TV, Cox Reps and Strata plan to add functionality to
ePort that will make local broadcast television even easier to transact.