NEW YORK—ITN has announced a new initiative to further expand its programmatic local linear TV platform by integrating Comscore's advanced and qualitative data into the ITN NXTv Programmatic Hub.

The move means that later this year, ITN’s data store will enable buyers to move more easily from planning to activation and provide users with greater precision, accountability, and workflow efficiency.

"This represents the next phase in the evolution of local linear TV," said Todd Watson, CEO of ITN. "We've already built the programmatic foundation. By integrating audience data directly into campaign execution, we're making local TV more precise, measurable, and actionable for advertisers."

"Modern measurement is at the core of how media buying and selling continues to evolve. We're proud to power ITN's self-service linear programmatic platform with advanced audience and behavioral data that enables smarter, more efficient planning," added Hanna Gryncwajg, senior vice president, commercial, Comscore. "Audience-based buying helps advertisers reach the consumers who are more likely to engage, improving campaign performance and ROI. With this launch, ITN is making sophisticated linear programmatic capabilities easier and more accessible for the marketplace."

The move was also praised by Dentsu, which is an alpha partner to the NXTv Programmatic Hub. "Buyers want local TV to align with the rest of their video investments—comparable, measurable, and easier to activate," said Jennifer Hungerbuhler, executive vice president, head of local media investment and productivity at Dentsu. "With Comscore data operationalized in NXTv, we can move from planning to programmatic activation faster and with greater confidence."

Dentsu reported that it will apply Comscore-provided advanced audience segments directly in campaign execution.

A key component of the initiative is a data store within the ITN NXTv Programmatic Hub. Powered by Comscore advanced and qualitative audiences, the data store includes more than eight hundred lifestyle and behavioral segments. As part of the initial rollout, Dentsu will leverage these capabilities to execute programmatic local linear TV campaigns using custom audience segments.

The integration preserves broadcaster control while simplifying impression-based buying for local linear TV—expanding value for both local TV and digital buyers and helping stations protect and grow share of investment.

The NXTv Programmatic Hub enables users to:

• Activate programmatic local linear TV using Comscore lifestyle and behavioral audience data across activation and post-campaign reporting.
• Create and manage custom Deal IDs informed by Comscore advanced data.
• Execute detailed programmatic buys through an integration with Magnite's ClearLine enabling activation across linear television.
• Monitor delivery in unified dashboards across linear and digital video.
• ITN's programmatic infrastructure, Comscore's audience intelligence, and Dentsu's sophisticated approach to activation are leading the industry to reduce friction and improve accountability across the local TV supply chain.

ITN also reported that the initiative strengthens local linear TV by adding programmatic intelligence, automation, and transparency to its unmatched reach. In the future, ITN will extend these capabilities to enhanced deal structures, advanced analytics dashboards, and AI buyer-to-seller agents to translate natural language prompts for streamlined submissions, bidding, and delivery.

For more information, visit itn.tv

NEW YORK—The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement and TVB have released their “Guidelines for Local TV/Video Currency Measurement”, an industry resource designed to clarify what buyers, sellers and measurement providers should expect from currency-measurement solutions intended for the local TV and local video marketplace.

“Local TV and local video remain important parts of the advertising marketplace,” CIMM Managing Director Jon Watts said. “As such, the industry will benefit from having a clear, practical framework for evaluating whether measurement solutions are truly ready for local use. These guidelines are intended to help create that shared reference point.”

Developed through industry collaboration and informed by buyer and seller input, the guidelines are intended to provide a practical framework for evaluating whether local measurement solutions are fit for market use, CIMM and TVB said. The goal is to support a more consistent, informed and transparent approach to local currency measurement as the marketplace continues to evolve.

“Local market transactions have specific requirements, and those requirements are not always addressed by broader measurement discussions,” said Hadassa Gerber, executive vice president and chief research officer, TVB. “This work is meant to give the market a more useful standard for assessing whether local TV and local video currency solutions are inclusive, usable, and transparent.”

In addition to the guidelines, CIMM and TVB released a companion Buyer’s Guide, designed to help buyers, sellers and other industry stakeholders translate the framework into a practical provider review process. The Buyer’s Guide includes due diligence questions and review areas that can support more consistent evaluation of local currency services.

The guidelines are built around three core principles:

• Inclusive Measurement should reflect the diversity of local audiences, the full range of ways viewers access local TV and video content, and the realities of markets of different sizes across the U.S.
• Transactable Measurement should be stable, reliable and suitable for use in forecasting, audience guarantees, post analysis, and the operational requirements of buying and selling local media.
• Transparent Measurement, meaning providers should clearly disclose methodology, communicate changes in advance, support auditability and provide the market with enough information to evaluate how a service works and how results should be interpreted.

To download “Guidelines for Local TV/Video Currency Measurement” and the Buyer’s Guide, visit the CIMM and TVB websites.

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has revised its 2026 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast (released in Q4 2025), projecting total local ad revenue to reach $184.5 billion, reflecting approximately 8.1% year-over-year growth compared with 2025.

BIA said the increase over the prior estimate of $181.7 billion is driven by stronger-than-expected performance in mobile (particularly social), video, and streaming, political ad spend, and advertising technology.

“Our updated forecast reflects continued momentum in social and connected and over the top television, which are capturing a growing share of local advertising budgets,” said Senan Mele, vice president of forecasting and data analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “At the same time, traditional media such as broadcast television, cable and radio remain essential, providing the scale, credibility, and local connection that advertisers rely on to drive awareness and demand.”

Political advertising will drive key spending this year. BIA projects approximately $8.4 billion in local political spending, creating substantial revenue opportunities across broadcast television, linear cable, CTV/OTT, radio, and direct mail.

BIA’s forecast also points to two growth factors driving the local advertising economy: near-term revenue from political spending and long-term growth fueled by key verticals, including real estate, restaurants, travel, retail, and financial services. Total local advertising is projected to exceed $222 billion by 2030, according to BIA’s forecast.

“The local advertising marketplace continues to reflect a K-shaped consumer economy,” said Rick Ducey, managing director, BIA Advisory Services. “Stronger spending from higher-income households is supporting discretionary categories like travel, leisure, and automotive, while value-oriented spending is shaping demand in retail, restaurants, and essential services.”

The forecast update also underscores the ongoing transformation of the media mix. Growth is being driven by digital channels – particularly mobile, social, and connected TV – while traditional media continues to play a critical role in delivering reach and brand impact.

While some legacy formats, including print, continue to face long-term declines, others are evolving, the researchers reported.

Across the market, advertisers are increasingly adopting full-funnel strategies, combining high-reach media such as cable, broadcast, and OOH with data-driven digital channels to drive both awareness and measurable outcomes. Radio also remains a stable local medium, with additional opportunities emerging through digital audio, including streaming and podcasts.

“Overall, the local advertising market is not contracting; it is transforming. The most successful media companies will be those that can combine local audience scale with targeting, optimization, and measurement to capture both cyclical political spending and ongoing demand from growth-oriented verticals,” added Mele.

As part of this forecast update, BIA has enhanced its methodology to better reflect changes in the marketplace, including adding Digital Out of Home (DOOH) as a distinct media category within the forecast, rather than grouping it with traditional Out of Home (OOH). This change highlights the increasing importance of digital, programmatic, and location-based media in local campaigns.

More information is available at http://bia.com.

In a rollout that will further heighten the competition between streaming services and local broadcasters, Prime Video is rolling out location-based interactive video ads in the U.S.

The location-based interactive ads allow advertisers to tailor their national TV commercials with location-specific content, such as local pricing, nearest dealership information, or local agent details.

This feature also allows advertisers to transform a single TV commercial into thousands of variants based on ZIP codes or tens of variations based on states without creating multiple creative assets. Advertisers can customize both messaging and clickthrough URLs for their ads through the Amazon DSP Video template, Amazon reported.

The solution will be particularly important in attracting national ad dollars and national advertisers who invest in TV advertising but struggle to effectively communicate their local value proposition, Amazon said. The solution not only enhances creative efficiency but also delivers a more relevant viewing experience for Prime Video's audience, bridging the gap between national campaigns and local relevance, the company said.

DETROIT—Waymark has announced that CBS’s owned stations across the country will now offer their local advertising partners Waymark’s AI-powered ad creation technology. The solution allows advertisers who might not otherwise be able to afford to create ads a cost effective way to market their products on local stations.

“We are looking forward to leveraging Waymark’s cutting-edge AI to create commercials for our local small and mid-sized clients,” said Robert Breen, co-head, advertising sales and operations, CBS Stations. “Their platform makes high-quality video production fast, easy, and accessible—perfect for driving results in today’s competitive market and paving the way for our clients to have another avenue to grow their business.”

CBS, which owns and operates 27 stations in major markets across the U.S., including New York (WCBS-TV), Los Angeles (KCBS-TV), and Chicago (WBBM-TV), is the latest leading broadcast station group to join forces with Waymark. Waymark also had deals with such media companies as Spectrum Reach, Fox TV Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair, Inc., Cox Media, Gray Media, Beasley Media Group, Nine Entertainment (Australia), and UK publisher National World plc.

“We have been working closely with CBS stations, testing our technology in a few markets, and after seeing great success, we’re excited to roll out our video advertising platform across all stations nationally,” says Hayden Gilmer, Waymark’s vice president of revenue.

Last year, Waymark teamed with Paramount+ and Pluto TV to launch the new Paramount Ads Manager, a self-service buying platform that put the power of television advertising into the hands of businesses of all sizes. Paramount Ads Manager provides full autonomy, accelerated access to Paramount’s premium content, asset creation tools, real-time measurement, and optimization.

“We’re thrilled to expand on our relationship with Paramount Global, following the successful rollout last year of the Paramount Ads Manager platform across Paramount+ and Pluto TV,” said Waymark CEO Alex Persky-Stern. “Our AI video technology combined with the Paramount Ads Manager is putting the power of video advertising into the hands of local businesses across the country.”

Earlier this month, the company launched Waymark 2, a next generation platform that allows the company’s partners like CBS to create one-click, high-quality videos easier and faster than ever before. With the rollout of this new technology suite, Waymark’s media partners and digital clients are experiencing a more personalized, friendly AI experience that features ultra-fast speed and generates richer video, descriptions, and voice-over capabilities. For the first time, users will be able to keep what they like and let AI regenerate the rest with Waymark 2, the company reported.

To showcase the transformative power of Waymark 2, the company is hosting a webinar at https://waymark.com/marketing/waymark-2-webinar.

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has announced that it has renewed and expanded its measurement deal with Gray Media.

As part of the multiyear agreement, Comscore will continue as a key local measurement currency provider for Gray and provide additional advanced demographics as well as more-precise audience insights across screens.

“We appreciate Comscore’s continued advancements in audience measurement and are pleased to roll out these solutions across more of our stations,” Gray Media senior managing vice president and chief revenue officer Matt Jaquint said.

With the renewed agreement, Gray will adopt Comscore Campaign Ratings (CCR), Comscore’s cross-platform measurement solution, starting in 2025. CCR will enable Gray to deliver comprehensive cross-platform insights with in-flight monitoring, ensuring advertisers achieve maximum campaign efficiency, Comscore said.

Additionally, Gray Media has added more TV stations, including its broadcast regional sports networks, for measurement by Comscore.

It will now also use Comscore’s Advanced Audience solutions, including County, Automotive, Political data and Plan Metrix, which enables marketers to plan against very specific audiences based on behavior.

These capabilities will provide Gray’s advertisers with precise insights and deduplicated measurement across screens in such key metrics as reach, frequency, incrementality and co-viewing.

“This expanded partnership represents a significant step forward in the measurement space as we continue to work alongside Gray Media to provide data-driven insights that fuel their continued growth and success,” Comscore chief commercial officer Steve Bagdasarian said. “We take pride in Gray’s confidence in our advanced cross-platform audience measurement solutions and are pleased to expand this important relationship.”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia has signed agreements to manage sales for four new service providers, expanding its reach across Tennessee, Illinois, Kansas and Georgia.

With the new agreements, Viamedia will manage advertising sales operations for Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) in Tennessee, MTCO in Illinois, Cunningham Telephone & Cable in Kansas and Hart Telephone in Georgia.

The expansion means Viamedia now manages sales and operations for 76 cable operators across 65 of the top designated market areas (DMAs) nationwide.

“These new partners expand our reach into key markets, enabling us to support local businesses with advanced advertising platforms that were previously beyond their grasp,” Viamedia CEO David Solomon said. “By combining our cutting-edge technology with the dedication these providers have to their communities, we’re making a meaningful impact on local economies and strengthening the connections between businesses and their customers across multiple regions.”

Viamedia offers its clients comprehensive operational management of all aspects of the advertising sales business, including regional and national sales. Its full-service partnerships include immediate deployment of sales tools, training, research, automation and marketing, along with a specialized sales-management team focused on efficiently selling fractionalized market shares with multiplatform insertion capabilities.

For more information, visit viamediatv.com.

NEW YORK—Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales business of Charter Communications, has announced a new multi-year agreement with Amazon Ads that will make Spectrum Reach a local reseller for Amazon Ads advertising inventory. 

The deal will allow Spectrum Reach to combine its streaming and traditional (i.e., linear) TV inventory, data and overall scale with the Amazon Ads offerings to offer local small and medium-sized business advertisers the ability to reach nearly every household in their respective region.

"Our work with Amazon Ads means local SMB advertisers can now access a modern solution to simplify media fragmentation and reach almost every household in their service areas, including both Spectrum customers and non-subscribers,” said David Kline, executive vice president at Charter Communications and president of Spectrum Reach. "By bringing together Amazon Ads’ capabilities alongside our first-party data, we can offer small to medium-sized businesses the ability to more accurately measure and optimize their advertising spend.”

Spectrum Reach provides custom advertising solutions for local, regional and national clients, using its privacy focused first-party data to help advertisers reach relevant audiences on any platform. Its advertising inventory offers access to more than 450 streaming and traditional networks and publishers, enabling advertisers to effectively place ads on TV, streaming, online video, display, search and social media platforms, the company said. 

More information about Spectrum Reach advertising solutions is available at www.spectrumreach.com .

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has issued a new U.S. Local Advertising Forecast for 2025 that is predicting the local digital ad spend will surpass traditional media for the first time, with 52% of the total $171 billion local ad spend in 2025. 

This represents an increase of 5.5 percent in non-political spending over BIA’s revised 2024 estimate. When including political advertising, the 2025 estimate represents a 1.3% decline from the revised estimate of $173.7 billion for 2024. In this forecast, BIA raised its 2024 local advertising estimate primarily due to an expectation of increased political advertising of $560 million. 

As part of the revised forecast,  BIA is now predicting that TV OTA will be $20.752 billion in 2024, up 28.1% from $16.203 billion in 2023. That is a 0.2% downward revision from the March forecast. 

TV digital will hit $2.2296 billion in 2024, up 25.4% from 1.7778 billion. That is a 0.4% upward revision.  

BIA did not provide breakdowns by sector for its 2025 estimates. 

“With macroeconomic conditions impacting 2024 local advertising spending, it has been slower than anticipated, and we've adjusted this year’s forecast,” said Nicole Ovadia, vice president of forecasting and analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “We've refined our projections for local advertising, both with and without political advertising, to better reflect anticipated overall media spend and to offer a view in the advertising marketplace from different perspectives.”

The recent forecast update shows a small increase in expectations for local political advertising in 2024. BIA now projects $11.7 billion in spending this year, up $560 million from its previous estimate in March. This political spending estimate represents a significant increase of 21.3 percent over the last general election that took place in 2020. Local television continues to get the largest share of the spending. 

At the same time, the firm projects that Connected TV/Over-the-Top (OTT) will receive much of the additional political ad dollars added to the mix. 

For 2025, Ovadia noted that “If the Fed adjusts interest rates as indicated, post-Q1 2025 or early Q2, and inflation cools and the labor market settles out, we anticipate some economic relief by mid-year. This will boost consumer confidence and, subsequently, increase media ad spend. While we're optimistic, we're also being cautious with our projections at this early stage.”

In 2025, BIA’s forecast shows that digital’s share of total local advertising will be greater than traditional media’s share for the first time. Digital ad revenue will get 52 percent of the overall advertising spend at $89 billion compared to traditional advertising revenue that is slated at 48 percent of the ad spend at $82 billion. 

Growing media in the forecast without political for 2025 include PC/Laptop (+13%)
, CTV/OTT (+9.1%)
, Out-of-Home (+5.9%)
, and TV Digital (+5.4%).

“In previous forecast rounds, we reported robust growth in CTV/OTT, but different factors have led us to moderate expectations around the speed of that growth,” BIA’s managing director Rick Ducey said. “One factor is that while streaming viewing is growing, there’s less available ad minutes in streaming versus linear TV. However, this channel continues to present valuable opportunities for advertisers due to how it combines the power of premium TV with the precision of digital audience targeting. Political and issue campaigns are tapping into this capability, and it will be interesting to unpack the use cases and outcomes.”

BIA’s local advertising forecast covers 12 vertical categories and 96 local verticals. Key vertical categories for 2025 include: restaurants (+9.5 percent); real estate (+6.7 percent); retail (+5.5 percent)

"Restaurants, Real Estate, and Retail – we’re referring to them as the Three Rs of 2025 – are ripe for expansion, and they all tie back to local advertising and media in meaningful ways. We'll be keeping a close eye on opportunities in both traditional and digital ad spend across these verticals," Ovadia noted.

Where to Get the 2025 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast

BIA ADVantage is the company’s local advertising revenue platform that delivers immediate access to its forecasts for all local television and radio markets for 16 media and 96 vertical categories. Clients can log into the platform to view the updated U.S. Local Advertising Forecast and their local market forecast updates. To purchase a subscription to BIA ADVantage, email advantage@bia.com. 

The nationwide forecast can also be purchased on the company’s shopping cart here. 

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. —A new forecast for local advertising from Borrell Associates provides some short-term good news and some longer-term bad news for local TV broadcasters. It’s newly released study predicts local TV advertising will jump by 5.9% in 2024 to $9.91 billion but decline sharply in the off-election year of 2025 to $8.77 billion, lower than the $9.16 billion stations earned in 2020. 

Even the 2024 election year spike is consistent with a longer term decline in local TV advertising as the $9.91 billion 2024 forecast is lower than the $10.62 in ad revenue stations earned in the 2022 election year. Traditionally presidential election years like 2024 are higher than years like 2022 with Congressional elections. During the next presidential election in 2028, broadcast TV is expected to see $9.1 billion in ad revenue. 

Overall, the new Borrell report predicts that local advertising “isn’t quite shaping up as the bountiful year that many had hoped for, but it’s still on pace to grow a healthy 3.2%.” 

Borrell is also forecasting slower than expected growth for streaming video advertising (OTT/CTV) among local buyers is growing far slower than initially predicted. The forecast calls for 3.9% growth this year, topping $23.3 billion.

Looking longer range, Borrell foresees local advertising growing at a 2.2% Compound Annual Growth Rate over the next five years.

The new projections also mark a downward revision from the ad-tracking company’s initial forecast for 2024, issued last November, which was 1.2 points higher. The downward adjustment was triggered by new information from Borrell’s principal sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Woods & Pool, D&B, IBIS World, and Borrell’s quarterly SMB Business Barometer, the researchers said. 

“For the past three quarters, we haven’t seen a lot of variation in SMBs’ attitudes about the economy and their plans to invest in advertising,” said Corey Elliott, executive vice president of Local Market Intelligence and Borrell’s chief forecaster. “They’re mostly neutral and slightly positive about the economy, but we’re still not seeing anything that would signal the bigger spring-back that many are hoping for.”

Since Q3 of last year and continuing through Q2 of this year, Borrell’s barometer survey has shown that a consistent 50% of SMBs consider it to be harder to sustain a small business than it was six months prior.

Overall, the forecast predicts a good year:

• Local advertising is forecast to reach $148.9 billion, up 3.9% from 2023.
• The largest growth is forecast for online listings, which encompasses sites for cars, jobs, merchandise, real estate, and services. Local ad spending is forecast to grow 8.1%, topping $20.4 billion.
• Spending on streaming audio commercials – including podcasting and spots on radio station websites, apps, and smart speakers – is pegged for the 2nd highest growth at 7.8%. It is forecast to hit $1.2 billion.
• Targeted display advertising, driven by social media, is forecast to grow 6.2%, reaching $27.2 billion.
• Local broadcast TV advertising is forecast to grow 5.9%, hitting $9.9 billion.
• The steepest declines are pegged for yellow pages (-14.3%), untargeted banner advertising (-8.4%), print newspapers (-6.7%) and cable TV (-6.0%)
• Streaming video advertising (OTT/CTV) among local buyers is growing far slower than initially predicted. The forecast calls for 3.9% growth this year, topping $23.3 billion.

The scale-back in growth for streaming video held the biggest surprise for Elliott.

“While there’s a lot of passion around digital video, it presents a bit of a challenge for local businesses,” he said. “They’ve been telling us in surveys that they don’t know how to purchase it or how it fits into their marketing plan. They aren’t even aware that it’s cheaper than broadcast TV. That all points to a more subdued ramp-up for OTT spending.

“That being said,” Elliott added, “the OTT jackrabbit is still outpacing everything else. It’s the fastest growing form of advertising and is already the fourth largest among the 18 different formats we track.”

Borrell’s latest release includes new forecasts for all U.S. markets, where shifts in the composition of local businesses have translated to significant differences from U.S. average growth rates. For instance, spending on newspaper advertising in Albany, NY, is forecast to grow 3.7% this year, while it’s forecast to decline 13.6% in Williamsburg, VA. In Little Rock, AR, radio spending is forecast to grow 7.3%, but decline by 7.0% in Baltimore, MD.

In addition to the 2024 forecasts, Borrell extended its’ long-range outlook to 2028. By then, Borrell’s forecast engine puts total local advertising at $161.2 billion, or 11.8% more than it was in 2023. Five years from now, the three advertising formats will all be basically tied for first place: General Paid Search ($32 billion), Targeted Online Display ads ($30.3 billion), and Streaming Video/OTT/CTV ($30.0 billion). Broadcast TV clocks in as the fourth-largest at $9.1 billion.

Evidence that AI tools can be a bonanza for local ad sales and bring in a host of new clients that might not otherwise be able to produce video ads, can be found at Charter’s Spectrum Reach’s local ad sales efforts. 

Following a partnership with Waymark to deploy its AI tools for quick creation of local ads, Spectrum and Waymark are reporting that in 2022, Spectrum Reach's team locked in $11.5 million in ad dollars with Waymark's AI spec spots and commercials. In 2023, they increased that number to $27 million. 

The companies also reported in a recently published case study that Spectrum Reach and its clients used Waymark’s AI to boost operations across the board, producing nearly 7,000 rendered commercial projects.

In 2023, Spectrum Reach was also able to generate an average of $4,000 ad dollars per Waymark video.

The results are a particularly positive development for broadcast stations and local ad sales efforts at a time when broadcasters have seen their core (non-political) ad revenue decline. Bringing in new clients who could not previously afford to the time and money it takes to create local ads by offering them automated AI ad creation tools could help reverse those declining sales. 

Waymark's tools have already been adopted by such broadcasters as Fox, Gray and Scripps.  

Local ad sales teams will be pressured to meet ever higher expectations in 2024. There are a few major trends that put the squeeze on broadcasters and their local teams. Many local advertisers are used to self-service through social media platforms, and like the autonomy, reporting and ease that it affords. 

The rise of CTV has brought a new level of control, transparency and reporting to TV that has increased expectations for what larger advertisers can get on linear media buys. Add to that the urgency from the upcoming election year and the Olympics and local sellers will feel the strain on all sides if they don’t change their current approach.

There are a number of ways that local ad sales teams can meet growing expectations profitably, namely embracing technology that enables automation, scale, higher performance, and self-service. 

The Shifting Face of Local Ad Sales
Many of the largest broadcasters announced major changes in 2023 that show just how much more complex local ad sales has become. Fox announced a completely new leadership team brought in to “leverage the power of Fox's strong news content, live sports and digital/streaming platforms.” Fox is one of many broadcast networks with a multi-channel offering that can make for complex ad sales.

Similarly, CBS named Wendy McMahon president of a combination of different assets that combines their 27 local markets, 14 streaming channels, radio and more. Again, sellers now have the responsibility of selling a rich portfolio to advertisers.

New leadership has also occured within top broadcast groups with the appointment of industry veterans Michael Strober at Nexstar and Brian Norris at Scripps as ad sales chiefs.

With critical events like the presidential election and overall political advertising cycle, local sellers will not only be looked at to innovate ad sales across channels, they’ll need to show growth and performance, too. 

New Local Ad Sales Challenges
Advertisers and ad sales teams are approaching the same transaction from totally opposite directions, and advertisers have the advantage because they hold the budget. Advertisers look at a broadcaster and want to reach a particular audience and specific content within a particular price point, and they want to hit certain performance goals. 

In order to accommodate these demands, ad sales teams are faced with a number of challenges that have gotten consistently worse as new channels have emerged:

• Disparate product and pricing information: Many broadcasters have different systems that house inventory and rate card information for streaming, linear and digital media, which means sellers need to pull information together manually.
• Manual campaign management: The amount of work involved with CTV and multichannel campaigns is enormous. A single IO may have hundreds of line items and creatives that each need to be manually entered into different systems with specific prices, audience segments and placement instructions. Reporting and end of campaign ture-ups can be just as arduous. This work can cripple a local team and eat into their ability to sell.
• Opaque and complex delivery: After the sale, local sales teams are responsible for driving campaign performance across different elements of the campaign. This might require shifting delivery instructions across channels based on performance reports. Pulling this information together across different systems can be so difficult and slow that optimization is nearly impossible.
• Slow reporting: Advertisers want to know how their campaigns performed, but it’s often too time consuming to provide information until the campaign is already over. This lack of flexibility can hurt broadcasters when advertisers are comparing them to nimble social media platforms and digital partners.

Ad Sales & Operations Tools Can Help
Ad sales teams want to provide better proposals to advertisers just like they want to have more control over campaign delivery. Completely outsourcing ad sales is one option, but it comes with a high margin, and reduces the inherent value within the broadcaster’s rich portfolio of multichannel content.

A better approach is to consider technologies that are built to improve the ad sales and delivery  processes that have become so complex in the first place. From proposal building to creative asset management and ad trafficking to campaign delivery, ad sales teams should not be bogged down with manual work and complexity when their real job is selling ads.

An order management system, for example, can solve a number of challenges facing local ad sales teams. It can unify inventory and pricing information to help ad sales teams create better proposals more quickly. It can also centralize and streamline advertising operations and delivery so that ad sales teams don’t have to spend time with data entry or creative uploads. It can optimize performance, move budget across channels and provide reporting as needed. Order management also improves the end-of-campaign process to reduce errors and speed up billing.

Similarly, self-service tools that are powered by order management systems can attract advertisers who like the automated buying that they get on platforms like Google and Meta. With an easy-to-use interface that gives advertisers access to placement, pricing and delivery windows, local ad sales teams can dramatically increase the scale of advertisers they can service without having to grow their teams. This is especially valuable for smaller advertisers and repeat advertisers with an overarching contract. 

These technologies are two examples of ways that local sales teams can reduce manual work, improve their ability to sell to a wide variety of advertisers and increase their revenue. It’s important that as the world of media evolves, that local sales teams embrace technology that can help them along with the market. 

NEW YORK—Fox Television Stations (FTS) and Waymark have signed a groundbreaking local advertising deal that will see Waymark’s Generative AI technology rolled out across all of Fox’s owned and operated stations in 17 markets nationally.

The Waymark solutions are designed to help stations expand their potential advertising base by providing small business who would normally be unable to produce their own ads with low-cost ads created by Waymark’s generative AI video creation technologies.  

Waymark’s AI-powered video platform enables local businesses to generate high-quality commercials with professional voice-over in five minutes or less.

Gray Television stations and Spectrum Reach have also adopted the Waymark solution.

The Fox announcement comes after a successful pilot program earlier this year at KTTV Fox 11 LA, KRIV Fox 26 Houston, WJBK Fox 2 Detroit, and KMSP Fox 9 Minneapolis, where the Fox-owned stations integrated Waymark’s technology successfully into its local ad sales efforts. An example of one of the ads can be seen here. 

“Video advertising for many has been perceived as expensive and out of reach,” explained Jason Sirek, vice president and general sales manager for KMSP and WFTC. “Now, this innovative product gives our local sellers a tool they can add to their arsenal to generate new business in the OTT/CTV and linear space, while helping local businesses better visualize how they can utilize the power of video to tell their story.”

“We’re thrilled to roll out our Gen-AI video platform across the FOX Television Stations nationally,” says Waymark CEO Alex Persky-Stern. “Waymark’s instant, fully customized commercials, plus FOX’s distribution, will open the door to premium video advertising for millions of businesses who otherwise wouldn’t have had the budget, time, or know-how.”

Fox Television Stations owns and operates 29 full power broadcast television stations in the U.S. These include stations located in nine of the top ten largest designated market areas (DMAs), and duopolies in 11 DMAs, including the three largest DMAs (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). 

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has decreased its 2023 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast estimate to $161.7 billion, a $4 billion drop from its original estimate of $165.7 billion. 

BIA pointed to a mixed start in the economy this year and the tempered growth in digital advertising as the main reasons for its revised forecast. 

“After Meta, Alphabet and others lowered expectations for 2023, we examined local digital advertising spending revenues over the first six months of the year and determined a reduction was necessary,” said Nicole Ovadia, vice president of forecasting and analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “After years of double-digit growth, we are seeing some headwinds that will have a significant impact on digital local advertising. For traditional media, while we’ve made changes to certain media and categories throughout our forecast, the total ad forecast for this segment remains consistent with our original expectations.” 

BIA’s updated U.S. Local Advertising Forecast for 2023 shows traditional media will earn $84 billion, with digital revenue reduced from an original estimate of $81 billion to $78 billion. 

BIA defines TV digital to include all digital advertising sold by local broadcast stations, excluding connected TV/over-the-top (CTV/OTT).  This includes mobile apps, search, social, owned & operated inventory, banner ads, etc. 

Taking political out of the expected ad spend this year, key indicators for media channels in 2023 include the following:

• The top three paid media channels for 2023 include Direct Mail ($37B), Mobile ($32B), and PC/Laptop ($28B).
• CTV/OTT is still slated to be the fastest-growing (18.5 percent this year), with an estimated $2.4B in revenue.
• Broadcast TV OTA (+0.2 percent), TV Digital (+4.9 percent) and Radio Digital (+4.1 percent) will see small increases even in this non-political year.

 Commenting on the growth of CTV/OTT, BIA’s managing director, Rick Ducey, said, “Both linear TV and digital budgets are fueling the growth of CTV/OTT, as well as new dollars from publishers and aggregators that are using the channel to extend their programmatic platform to long tail businesses.”

When examining the top spending sub-verticals, BIA advises that later in the year, growth is expected in Auto, and the company is raising expectations for Tier 3 - New Car Dealers, and Automotive Repair Services. Other important verticals for local advertising where BIA is raising expectations include Savings/Credit Institutions and Other Loan Services, Plumbers and HVAC, and Realtors. Although political will be a huge advertising category in 2024, BIA does anticipate some spending to begin later in 2023.

The updated local advertising forecast for 2023 lowers estimates for Online Gambling, Office Supplies and Stationery Stores, Auto & Direct Property Insurance, Health & Personal Care Stores. 

More information is available at http://www.bia.com.

ATLANTA—In a move that could increase ad revenue by making it easier for local businesses to advertise on broadcast TV, Gray Television Stations has inked a deal with Detroit-based Waymark that will allow Gray’s local TV stations to use Waymark’s generative-AI video production platform.

Waymark’s generative-AI video platform allows local businesses to generate high-quality TV commercials with voiceovers in five minutes or less. Gray’s local sales teams are already implementing Waymark’s technology to approach small business prospects with customized creative. 

The companies said Gray plans to rollout the platform at all of its 113 local TV stations.

“Waymark’s easy to use platform is helping us bring a bigger focus to video marketing in local markets,” Pat LaPlatney, president and co-CEO, Gray Television Inc., stated. “In return, we’ve been able to produce video at a higher rate and our sales reps have found a great deal of success in utilizing the tool. We’ve already been fortunate to see the benefits of Waymark’s platform throughout our organization nationally.”

Earlier this year, Waymark and Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales business of Charter Communications, Inc., announced a national deal for the platform. Using Waymark’s platform, local businesses across Spectrum Reach’s footprint are creating real-time, ready-to-air commercials for their TV and streaming TV advertising campaigns. 

“We’re thrilled to be rolling out across the nation with Gray Television’s market-leading local broadcast stations,” added Waymark CEO Alex Persky-Stern. “Our AI-video platform is allowing local advertisers the opportunity to create customized, high-quality commercials in record time and at very affordable rates.”

NEW YORK—The cross-media local advertising company Viamedia has announced that it saw significant growth in 2022 as it signed partnerships and expanded its advertising sales representation with 11 new service providers in 2022.

In addition to managed service relationships, Viamedia has established partnerships with numerous service providers, including Adams Cable Service in Carbondale, Pa.; ATC Broadband in Alma, Ga.; College Cable in Nicholasville, Ky; HolstonConnect in Rogersville, Tenn.; Norwood Light Electric & Broadband in Norwood, Mass.; Oklahoma Electric Cooperative in Norman, Okla.; Pioneer Telephone Cooperative in Kingfisher, Okla.; Ralls Technologies in Quincy, Ill.; and Sandhill Telephone Cooperative in Jefferson, S.C.

“Viamedia had many major accomplishments in 2022, not least of which was the milestone number of new partnerships established,” said Madeline Kissel, Viamedia’s vice president of affiliate relations and business development. “We are proud that these agreements will help our new partners unlock fresh revenue streams and offer the latest technologies, tools, and strategies that can maximize business for their clients and advertisers.”

Viamedia’s Network Operations Center (NOC) now provides supporting ad sales teams selling for over 70 MVPDs in 28 states covering 65 designated market areas (DMAs) in the U.S., the company said. 

“Viamedia partners have the advantage of bringing more focused viewer targeting and a more engaging, impactful ad experience than ever before,” added Dan Walsh, Viamedia’s Divisional vice president of cross media. “With greater transparency, reporting and insights than previously offered in the local marketplace, service providers can focus on driving revenues for their core business. In addition, we’re committed to helping our partners reduce risk, as well as minimize personnel-related costs and complications, as it relates to ad sales and cross-channel marketing.”

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—NBCUniversal has announced that it will be holding a forum on the future of local advertising on December 8 in Philadelphia. 

The Local Innovation Forum: Philadelphia is designed to connect local business owners in Philadelphia to the vast resources, technology capabilities, and partnerships across Comcast NBCUniversal and help build the future of local advertising through NBCU’s One Platform, the company said. 

The Forum will feature local business owners and agency partners in the Philadelphia area as well as NBCUniversal advertising and local executives and MSNBC Host, ‘Velshi’ Ali Velshi at the Comcast Technology Center.

During the forum, attendees will hear from Frank Comerford, chief revenue officer & president of sales, NBCUniversal Local and Ric Harris, president and general manager, NBC10/Telemundo62 on the future of local advertising as content, innovation, and technology continue to transform. 

In addition, Ali Velshi will give a keynote on the macroeconomic outlook on the advertising industry and will moderate an engaging panel discussion with NBCUniversal leaders on how advancements in commercial innovation, measurement, business development, and more will shape the future of local advertising. The panel will be followed by an audience Q&A and a tour of the labs, innovation, and event spaces within the Comcast Technology Center. 

NBCU noted that the Local Innovation Forum is kicking off in Philadelphia with the intention of hosting additional gatherings throughout major markets in the U.S.

“Partnering with local businesses allows Comcast NBCUniversal to stay connected with our audiences in those communities,” Comerford said. “And, local businesses especially rely on the resources and IP of major media and technology companies to navigate the reality of a multi-platform future. Comcast NBCUniversal has the resources – from experts in marketing, research, sales, commerce and more – as well as iconic IP, including news, sports, entertainment, streaming, English and Spanish languages, opening up access for local marketers to begin leveraging NBCU’s One Platform to move their businesses forward in unique, impactful ways.”

More information on joining a future Local Innovation Forum can be obtained by emailing nbcuadvertisingandpartnershipscomms@nbcuni.com. 

DALLAS, Tex. & SAN JOSE, Calif.—The competition for local ad dollars continues to heat up with an announcement by Roku that it has launched a new certified partner program using Roku’s OneView ad platform to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) adopt and expand their investment in TV streaming advertising.

Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media is the first agency to join. 

As an early adopter and first certified partner, Camelot will use the data, tech, and tools from America’s largest TV streaming platform to make it easy for SMBs to grow their businesses and achieve their marketing goals, the companies said. 

The effort is notable in that it will increase the competition faced by local TV stations and cable operators for local ad dollars. 

In making the announcement, Roku cited research data saying that nearly half (47%) of SMBs say they intend to increase spend in TV streaming in the next 12 months. 

TV streaming advertising offers the personalization, optimization, and performance to help SMBs succeed, Roku noted. 

Roku’s OneView ad platform for TV streaming is used by brands to up, optimize, and measure their ad campaigns. 

OneView, which is the only ad buying platform with Roku data from the streamers 63 million active accounts, offers software with data, machine learning, and measurement to reach more streamers wherever they are, on Roku, other TV streaming platforms, desktop, mobile, and more.  

“We’re thrilled to enhance our longstanding partnership with Roku to bring SMBs the benefits of TV streaming,” said Sam Bloom, CEO of Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media. “Camelot prides itself on building fact-based, insights-driven programs for our clients, which is why we chose OneView to deliver the best TV ad experience.” 

“For the past six years, Camelot has been a key strategic partner with Roku and demonstrated operational excellence in OneView,” said Tommy Burk, Senior Director, OneView. “We’re excited to entrust Camelot to help a broader set of advertisers accelerate the shift to TV streaming.” 

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has decreased its 2022 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast estimate to $167.4 billion, a decline from its original estimate of $173.3 billion issued in December 2021. 

But it is still predicting hefty growth for TV over-the-air (OTA) spending, which is set to see a +30.3% pop in 2022. and TV digital, which is set to grow 18.3%.  

Headwinds from overseas conflicts, continuing supply chain issues and deep cuts in ad spending from large verticals like automotive prompted them to revise their overall estimates for local TV advertising downwards, BIA said. 

Despite those problems, BIA also highlighted some positive trends for the ad market, including an anticipated strong political ad year, the expansion of online gambling local advertising and consumer spending on leisure and recreational activities. 

“The year didn’t start as strong as we had anticipated, making for a difficult first two quarters as some expected advertising spend started to retract,” said Mark Fratrik, senior vice president and chief economist, BIA Advisory Services. “On the one hand, personal income continues to rise, but the cost of consumer goods, rising gas prices and inflation are having a major impact and we believe that will influence how advertisers will choose to use their ad dollars in the coming months. All of that must be weighed against what we see as positives for local advertising this year.”

The latest forecast still gives traditional media ad revenue a slight advantage over digital at 52.5% of the ad spend ($87.9 billion), while digital media will get 47.5% of the ad spend at $79.5 billion, BIA reported. 

Overall, BIA is decreasing digital estimates slightly from the original 2022 forecast due to mobile facing headwinds amid new privacy measures on iPhones. Additionally, there has been slower than anticipated growth. Even as both digital channels continue to grow, it’s at a reduced pace than originally expected.

Other key data from the report includes: 

• The top three paid media channels for 2022 include Direct Mail ($34 billion), Mobile ($32 billion), and PC/Laptop ($30 billion).
• Over-the-top (OTT) is still slated to be the fastest-growing (57.4% in 2022).
• Significant growth is expected in TV OTA (+30.3%), TV Digital (+18.3%) and Radio Digital (+14.5%).
• Tier 1 - Automotive Manufacturers (OEMs) has been adjusted down by 17.6% to $3.9 billion (was $4.7 billion). Overall, for the entire automotive industry, BIA lowered the updated ad estimates by $1.4 billion for a total of $12.4 billion. That still indicates some growth from 2021, 5.5%, but significantly down from original estimates.
• Leisure areas like Airport, Cruises, and Other Travel; Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers; and Museums, Historical Sites, and other venues are all experiencing significant growth in ad spending from last year to this year. Pent-up demand for travel and entertainment are driving growth in these areas but may be tempered by late summer due to inflation and other economic concerns.
• Local political advertising spending was raised to $8.6 billion with local television getting a large share of the spend.

BIA’s vice president of forecasting and analysis, Nicole Ovadia, added that “We are seeing the economy play out in local advertising. For instance, people saved money during the pandemic and now, are enjoying different areas in the leisure and recreational verticals. People are spending on vacations and activities, and even going back to the gym. In all these areas, including political, we increased local advertising expectations. For businesses that have a direct reliance on supply chains, we have lowered expectations and will continue to monitor the situation throughout the summer fully expecting we may have to revise our estimates because the economy is in such a state of flux.”

SAN JOSE, Calif.—In another example of how streamers are honing in on local advertising markets traditionally served by broadcasters, Roku has announced that it is planning to launch a new app that will allow Shopify merchants to easily build, buy, and measure TV streaming advertising campaigns. 

The new app, which will become the first-ever TV streaming app available in the Shopify App Store, is designed to encourage small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited ad budgets to build stronger brands and increase revenue through TV advertising, Roku said. 

Roku’s application, which is slated to launch in advance of the holiday season, will enable Shopify merchants of any size to easily create TV advertising campaigns using precise audiences and measurement throughout their marketing funnel. 

Roku is pitching this as a “significant advancement from traditional linear and cable TV advertising solutions, which offer limited targeting and measurement options.”

“The shift to TV streaming has accelerated, and growth advertisers need a solution that can solve their top-of-funnel branding needs as well as a simple solution that complements their lower funnel search and social efforts,” said Jared Lefkowitz, senior director of ad revenue strategy, Roku. “This is a powerful and simple advertising opportunity for SMBs to reach customers at scale, just as Fortune 500 brands have done for decades. We’re excited to launch an easy-to-use solution for Shopify merchants that drives brand awareness on the biggest screen in the home.”

The Roku app for Shopify was designed for ease of use and rapid deployment, Roku said. The Shopify App Store provides merchants with approximately 7,000 publicly available apps and integrations to help them grow their businesses.

“At Shopify, we’re focused on helping our merchants reach more consumers, boost their sales, and build thriving businesses,” said Amir Kabbara, director of product, Shopify. “By launching the new Roku app in the Shopify App Store, merchants can bring their products directly to TV screens, while allowing consumers to discover exciting new brands right from their living room.”

Merchants using the Roku app in early access include Birthdate Co, Jambys, Moon Pod, and OLIPOP, among others. To get early access to the Roku app, visit here. 

“Roku made it easy for us to launch and scale an effective TV streaming campaign,” said Andrew Goble, co-founder of Jambys. “We wanted to invest in ad-supported streaming that could efficiently increase awareness, but also drive real action. With Roku, we were able to reach the right people with the right message at the right time. We measured a 63% increase in consideration among those who saw our ads. And our campaigns on Roku ended up raising the efficiency of other channels, too.”

CHANTILLY, Va.—BIA Advisory Services has released its forecast for U.S. local advertising in 2021, which among a growth as the industry rebounds from COVID-19 includes the emergence of OTT and Connected TV as key players in the broadcast industry’s advertising outlook.

“The OTT TV and Connected TV segment are game changers for the broadcast industry because it is now very easy to purchase fragmented inventory and do audience targeting,” said Rick Ducey, BIA managing director. “These improvements will help sellers better justify local OTT buying, and we expect local audience share gained in Q2 and Q3 of 2020 will be maintained and expanded going forward, presenting a tremendous opportunity for the industry.”

BIA reported that OTT local advertising generated $1 billion in revenue in 2020. With targeted advertising capabilities with quality video programming, BIA projects that OTT local advertising will grow to $1.2 billion in 2021.

Traditional broadcast advertising among local TV and local radio stations will still be the biggest draws for the broadcast industry, however. Local TV is estimated to bring in $15.7 billion in 2021, while local radio is estimated to net $12.6 billion.

That will put both local TV and local radio in the top five of revenue sources in BIA’s projections. The top three is rounded out by online, with an estimated $23.3 billion; mobile at $23.4 billion; and direct mail at $31.2 billion. In total, traditional media revenue will account for 55.3% of local advertising with $76.1 billion, which is actually a slight decline.

Digital media revenue will make up for that dip, according to BIA projections, earning $61.5 billion in 2021. It’s share of 44.7% of the market is an increase of 3.7% from 2020.

Overall, BIA projects that U.S. local advertising revenue across the media will hit $137.5 billion in 2021, up 2.5% from 2020, with the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine a big factor. However, BIA does not expect pre-COVID levels to return until 2022.

NEW YORK—Local advertising spending was on the rise in September by agencies using FreeWheel’s Strata ePort, to the point that it broke the platform's single month record, according to the Comcast-owned company.

September marked the largest single-month scale of orders for ePort in its 13-year history, which FreeWheel says points to two key points: the importance of automation and the growth of local TV spend.

“Since early spring, proprietary FreeWheel data has shown record increases in viewership, including a 32% growth in ad views. However, advertising budgets were in decline as brands and agencies struggled with the pandemic,” said Michael McHugh, vice president Media eBusiness at FreeWheel. “Out latest data is a clear sign that these trends are reversing—and local advertising is combing back into balance. Consumers are increasingly turning to local programming to find out what’s happening in their communities, and the advertisers are following.”

The Strata ePort system electronically delivers local broadcast TV orders to stations and rep firms. In September, more than 500 different agencies sent orders for local TV advertising through the ePort system. With the upcoming election, political advertisers did make up a portion of the increased spend, but FreeWheel says that more than half of the activity was among non-political advertisers.

FreeWheel also believes that the increased adoption of automation among local agencies and broadcasters helped spur the September growth. The factors of working remotely and need for efficiency in advertising budgets may be contributing to that trend.

McHugh says FreeWheel expects to see similar growth for the rest of 2020.

SAN FRANCISCO—As viewers continue to help OTT grow in popularity, more and more advertisers are beginning to follow suit, including on the local level.

ZypMedia, a company that specializes in helping local businesses leverage digital media and OTT, provided findings that showed that the year-over-year growth from Q3 2018 to Q3 2019 had them serve 158% more OTT impressions. Compared to Q2 2019, the third quarter saw an increase of 18%.

The OTT campaigns are being delivered through consumers TVs, with the Roku serving as the most popular device, per ZypMedia. Roku was followed in Q3 by Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast, Samsung TV and Vizio TV.

Other findings from ZypMedia showed that the top categories of OTT campaigns were automotive, home & garden and health & Fitness. It also found that 60% of all campaigns for one month or less.

More information is available on ZypMedia’s website.

CHANTILLY, VA.—Candidates for office next year will spend $6.55 billion on local political advertising with nearly half being spent on over-the-air television, according to a new estimate from BIA Advisory Service.

BIA is forecasting political spending on OTA TV advertising will reach $3.08 billion, or 47% of the total, followed by online/digital outlets at $1.37 billion (21%), multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) at $919 million (14%) and radio at $312 million (4.8%). The rest will go to other media outlets, including direct mail, which normally is a major political advertising medium but will only capture a small percentage in 2020, BIA said.

“Campaigns will continue to rely on television as a dominant platform for advertising while supplementing with digital advertising across mobile and desktop,” said Mark Fratrik, chief economist and SVP at BIA Advisory Services.

Los Angeles, Phoenix and Philadelphia are expected to top media markets in terms of political ad spending next year. In Los Angeles, candidates will spend $168 million on TV, $76 million on digital, $55 million on cable TV and $17 million on radio, according to BIA.

TV spending in Phoenix and Philadelphia will be high with the former seeing $156 million in spending and the latter experiencing a TV ad spend of $135 million, the company said.

“In some of the smaller markets, one thing to keep an eye on is how the huge volume of political advertising could crowd out other local advertisers during primary and general election seasons,” said Fratrik. “That may have an impact on advertisers and media companies, and we’ll certainly factor that into our forecasting as we go through the fall.”

The estimates of 2020 political advertising will be part of BIA ADVantage, an advertising intelligence report focusing on 94 markets.

More information is available on the BIA Advisory Services website.