PITTSBURGH—Gray Television has launched the first phase of Matrix Solutions’ cross-platform Admiral media sales gateway across all of its stations, Matrix said today.

The first step includes adoption of a modernized sales proposal system for linear advertising. The phase is a jumping-off point for the media industry to transition to converged advertising, the company said.

“We view this phase as a significant first step in transforming our business as we evolve as entities,” said Karen Youger, senior vice president of sales operations at Gray Television. “We are thrilled to be a vested partner working alongside Matrix as they develop this next-level technology that will enable us and our industry to adopt and accelerate converged advertising workflows with ease.”

The fully developed gateway provides the infrastructure and workflows to automate converged advertising sales from demand through order fulfillment for digital and OTT inventory, traditional spots and impression-based/dynamic ad insertion for live linear, the company said.

Proposal system advancements include aggregating multiple markets and different rate cards within the same proposal. Built on an open API infrastructure, Admiral is an open system that supports ingest and dissemination of all data, including any measurement, currency or rate and inventory optimization, it said.

Dynamic interoperability ensures orders are routed automatically to the appropriate execution system. Admiral also will shift orders to new execution if how and what a user sells changes, thereby reducing the impact of change, it said.

Gray Television is one of four investors in Admiral, which is being developed and released in phases. The other investors include CoxReps, Graham Media and Hearts Television. 

The next stage will include a fully converged experience for traditional linear, digital and OTT workflows. Completion is targeted for July 2023, the company said.

Matrix Solutions, a provider of media revenue management technology, announced today that it has signed partnerships with Gray TV, CoxReps, Graham Media and Heast Television to use its Media Sales Gateway platform.

Cox Enterprises’ Videa software will serve as the initial back-end technology for traditional linear spot and all future development will be built on Azure with an open architecture. The Media Sales Gateway, named Admiral, will be a sell-side tool that provides both the infrastructure and workflows to automate converged advertising sales, from demand through order fulfillment, including digital and OTT inventory, traditional spot, and impression-based/dynamic ad insertion for live linear.

Accommodating multichannel, omni-platform selling, Matrix says Admiral will provide a viable path for media companies to transition to converged, impression-based workflows, without needing to change the underlying traffic system. Its dynamic interoperability will ensure that orders are routed automatically to the appropriate inventory, regardless of a company’s current execution system.

“Emerging revenue platforms have introduced significant opportunities for us, but only if we can effectively optimize them,” shared Pat LaPlatney, Co-CEO and President, Gray Television. “Matrix has proven to be a trustworthy partner with in-depth media sales expertise and a shared goal of advancing our industry through collaboration.  We look forward to exploring how Admiral will enhance our operational workflow.”

• Buy-Side Aggregation: a portal for agencies to transmit requests for proposals.
• Inventory Management: provides visibility to all available inventory assets across digital (OTT, CTV) and linear platforms.
• Proposal/Negotiation: originates and builds converged proposals to electronically negotiate with the agency/buyer.
• Order Management: converts accepted proposals into orders and automatically propagates the required information to the underlying execution systems.
• Make-Goods and Campaign Management: once the initial orders are sent; make goods and campaigns will be managed through the system until the final order requirements are completed.

Admiral will be developed and released in several phases. The first phase will include the Buy-Side Aggregation platform and a primary workflow for traditional linear ad sales, with a target for completion in early fourth quarter of 2022. The second phase will include a fully converged experience for traditional linear, digital, and OTT workflows, with a completion target of second quarter 2023. Development will continue to include impressions-based linear with dynamic ad insertion workflows, including a push to ATSC 3.0 execution systems, as well as advanced reporting and analytics.

“I am a huge believer in the potential that can be achieved when media and technology companies partner. It leverages shared knowledge and expertise in a transparent way and produces expedited outcomes and solutions that are both economical and effective while generating maximum results,” commented Mark Gorman, CEO, Matrix. “We are grateful and honored by the partnerships of Gray Television, CoxReps, Graham Media, Hearst Television, and Cox Enterprises as we come together to develop this leading-edge solution that will support local, network, and more, around the globe. It will allow our industry to collectively sell more efficiently while also increasing the revenue to empower each media company to better create, inspire, inform, and entertain.”

PITTSBURGH—Matrix Solutions has announced a new alliance with global management consulting and technology firm Aspirant.

This relationship provides media enterprises with greater customization capabilities within Matrix Solution’s Monarch’s full ad platform and reporting and analytic modules as well as other system integrations and workflow enhancements.

The business alliance provides media organizations greater opportunities to customize their workflows within the global ad sales platform, enabling sales teams to tailor Monarch to better meet their specific goals.

Further, Aspirant will allow media organizations to leverage the Monarch platform to integrate other systems and technologies, enabling easier dissemination throughout sales organizations. By seamlessly automating into existing systems, the partnership will help organizations leverage their data in new ways, while allowing the Monarch base platform to focus on its core: leveraging interoperability within the desired solution stack.

More information is available on the Matrix Solutions and Aspirant websites. 

AMSTERDAM--Matrix Solutions and Imagine Communications will showcase an integrated, end-to-end ad sales workflow at IBC2018, Sept. 14-18 in Amsterdam. The two companies are combining their front and back-office advertising solutions to help broadcast, cable and broadband companies optimize inventory value and drive ad spend across multichannel, multi-market operations.

Matrix Solutions’ media ad sales platform aggregates and normalizes disparate data sources throughout the enterprise and gives users real-time access to all of their ad sales data. Imagine’s ad tech portfolio features inventory optimization and management systems, as well as targeted delivery solutions, which help broadcast, cable and broadband companies optimize inventory value.

“Imagine Communications brings world-leading optimization technology and enables automated workflows right across the ad sales and commercial operations process,” said Graham Heap, Director Product Management, Global Sales, for Imagine Communications Ad Tech. “Our collaboration with Matrix Solutions will help extend those capabilities to the front-of-house activities and enable media companies to adopt a more data-driven sales strategy, which directly correlates to media companies increasing revenue.”

[Read: More Advertisers Using Video In Digital Campaigns]

Matrix Solutions and Imagine Communications will demonstrate their combined solution at Imagine’s stand in the RAI Amtrium, 4.A01.

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PITTSBURGH—Meredith Corporation has announced that it has installed Matrix Solutions’ CRM & Sales Intelligence platform for Meredith’s Local Media Group’s sales organization. The cloud-based system will provide full sales visibility and management functionality to the Local Media Group, allowing sales data and analytics to be accessed by enterprise users across Meredith’s 17 owned and operated stations.

With the CRM & Sales Intelligence system, data from the Local Media Group is aggregated and delivers insights with proactive alert notifications through an intuitive dashboard. Matrix also now has full mobile functionality for the platform. This allows Meredith to monitor its sales for content across broadcast television, print, digital and mobile.

Matrix Solutions is a provider of web-based media specific platforms for TV, radio and electronic advertising.