ATLANTA—Gray Television, Inc. has promoted Garrett Pope to senior vice president, sales operations. Pope will assume the new post on September 1.

For the past three years, Pope has served as vice president, traffic and sales systems, where he oversaw all facets of Gray’s traffic and programming hubs that are responsible for inventory management and optimization for nearly 500 program streams across both broadcast and digital platforms. 

Recently, Garrett built Gray’s sales research hub to provide research insight and strategies for Gray’s sales teams across its portfolio. His promotion reflects the expansion of his duties and contributions within the organization.

During his time with Gray, he has played a key role in incorporating Gray’s many acquisitions and new stations and channels into the company’s sales and traffic workflows. Throughout his career, Garrett worked in all areas of station and sales support including building and operating centralized workflows for Univision, Raycom Media, and Gray.

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit, the most widely used provider of broadcast and network TV and radio inventory and revenue workflow management software in the U.S., has released a new version of WO Network, the company’s flagship network ad sales and commercial operations platform.

WO Network 2023 introduces a number of new capabilities and benefits that are designed to help broadcast and cable networks generate more revenue, reduce costs, and improve efficiency, the company said. 

Those capabilities include enhanced Direct Response automation, improved precision when calculating CPMs and accounting for delivered impressions, improvements to the Electronic Material Instructions module, and more.

“WO Network 2023 simplifies network ad sales and commercial operations with new features and enhancements that deliver revenue growth, cost savings, and improved efficiency to our cable and broadcast network customers,” says Susie Hedrick, WideOrbit president and managing director, Traffic Systems. “We are excited to introduce these latest improvements to WO Network, furthering our commitment to continuous innovation and investment in our core products.”

Highlights of WO Network 2023 benefits and improvements, according to WideOrbit, include:

• Precision: Properties can now define raw impression values from 1(000) thousand to the unit level 1(001) which allows users more accuracy when calculating CPMs and accounting for delivered impressions  
• Direct Response (DR) Automation (Revisions): Import DR deal changes into existing WO Network Deals, improving the efficiency of importing DR Deals from an external partner
• Constraint Instruction Bundle Audit: Adds a new tab within Constraint Instruction Bundles to track changes to bundles 
• Deal Reweight Analysis Report: Extends daypart functionality to support user-defined Client Dayparts instead of Selling Name dayparts  
• Deal Search/Master Deals: Allows users to create Master Deals from an existing group of deals from Deal Search  
• Electronic Material Instructions improvements:  
• The ability to check for pending Electronic Material Instructions records at Log Finalization  
• Users can modify dates, times, day(s) of week, and spot type in instructions prior to import  
• Warnings to users regarding materials that may have exclusions or rejected statuses upon import

Other enhancements include: improvements to Advanced Log Rules that allow Placer to move units that are in violation of user-defined Log Rules; Spot Distribution enhancements allowing users to easily redistribute units to a different day of week (displace only) using the Spot Distribution tab; a new Ad-ID filter added to Material Instructions to help users easily identify correct Ad-IDs.

WO Network 2023 is now available for general release.

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit has unveiled WO Traffic v23.0, the latest release of WO Traffic, the company’s flagship broadcast media ad traffic operations platform. 

WO Traffic v23.0 is now available for general release.

The new release, WO Traffic v23.0, introduces additional tools and features that are designed to help stations and station groups, helping generate new revenue, reduce costs, and improve efficiency with enhanced spot-level order validation, streamlined material approvals, the convenience of multi-select for mass import of Material Instructions, and more.

The newest release of WO Traffic also introduces significant improvements to the user experience, streamlining workflows to improve efficiency and productivity, the company said. 

“WideOrbit is committed to continuous innovation and investment in our core products,” says Susie Hedrick, WideOrbit president and managing director, Traffic Systems. “Each of the enhancements introduced in WO Traffic v23.0 work together to deliver benefits such as improved workflow efficiency and ease of use, helping our customers accomplish more in less time.”

“We have received some great features from WideOrbit upgrades in the past but the benefits of WO Traffic v23.0 are some of the best we’ve seen,” added Pam Friesen, traffic manager at Griffin Media, which is already using v23.0. “Our manual effort for displaced spots alone has been cut by half the time. Traffic and Sales are both very excited to work with the new features.”

Highlights of WO Traffic v23.0 benefits include:

• Orders+: Major enhancements include a new look, additional functions, and the ability to multi-select single Orders to quickly create an Orders+ Group
• Property Add to Profile: New options to add a Property more easily to Advertisers, Agencies, Credit Profiles and Contacts
• Format Details Report: A new report that brings together Format Instance Details across days, Properties and Channels, with an efficiency tool for working with many formats across Properties at once
• Zoom: Frequently requested by clients, a new Zoom option provides a user-controlled option to increase the entire application size, including fonts and grids
• Order Validation: Now expanded to support validation rules for Spot-level values
• Material Approval reimagined: Streamlined Material Approval workflow, including an enhanced Status tab on Materials
• Electronic Materials: The ability to multi-select and mass import Electronic Materials, creating many in a single action
• Political Type: A new Political Type field offers a centralized way to identify political advertising on Advertisers and Orders, with a reporting tool in Revenue, Pacing, and Spot Details

Other notable enhancements include: an added process to receive and view lift impressions for ads not replaced on a stream when using WO Traffic’s Addressable Ad Replacement; Digital Orders enhancements; new Placer conflict and override tools for managing oversell of bookends; an optional process at log finalization for creating up to 7 days of automation-ready playlist files for use in the event of an emergency; an Electronic Material Instructions Trial tool that allows users without a license to “test drive” the module by creating their own simple Electronic Material Instructions records and importing them. 

A detailed demonstration of new features and enhancements available with WO Traffic v23.0, is available here.  

TORONTO & SAN FRANCISCO—Yangaroo and WideOrbit have announced a partnership that will streamline and automate the delivery of traffic instructions between advertisers and broadcasters. 

As part of the agreement, Yangaroo’s asset management and delivery platform will be integrated with WideOrbit's Electronic Material Instructions module within WideOrbit’s flagship ad sales and commercial operations platform, WO Traffic. The integration facilitates a seamless end-to-end automated exchange of traffic instructions, effectively eliminating errors and saving valuable time for advertisers and broadcasters.

"The API integration between Yangaroo and WideOrbit delivers instant benefits to all advertisers and broadcasters using our platforms,” explained Grant Schuetrumpf, CEO of Yangaroo. “The smooth and immediate exchange of data between the platforms represents a substantial enhancement for all stakeholders involved in managing real-time responses and confirmations when advertisers submit traffic instructions to broadcasters across the USA."

"Our partnership with Yangaroo underscores WideOrbit's dedication to delivering comprehensive tools that better connect TV broadcasters and advertisers, ultimately simplifying day-to-day tasks,” added Susie Hedrick, president and managing director of Traffic Systems at WideOrbit. "By seamlessly transferring traffic instructions to WO Traffic through Yangaroo, we offer advertisers more advanced and automated workflows. This partnership aligns with WideOrbit's Wider-World approach, which aims to provide media companies with broader capabilities, deeper insights, and stronger connections."

As part of the integrated solution, advertisers can simply key in buy and traffic data using Yangaroo. The advertiser then receives immediate feedback that the instructions have been received and processed correctly by a broadcaster that uses WO Traffic, the companies explained. 

"This integration holds significant importance for Yangaroo as it aligns with our ongoing dedication to metadata integration,” emphasized Richard Klosa, CTO at Yangaroo. “Yangaroo plays a critical role in the asset and metadata ecosystem for advertising spot distribution, and this integration represents a pivotal milestone in our long-standing commitment to effectively managing traffic instructions."

DENVER—Imagine Communications has announced that it has streamlined automated advertising transactions for local TV broadcasters via its latest advances in support of the TVB TIP (TV Interface Practices) Initiative.

Imagine has been an active vendor partner with TIP, the media industry group promoting open interfaces to streamline local broadcast TV ad transactions, since 2018. The company was an early adopter of TIP interfaces in its widely deployed OSI Traffic and Billing system and has continued to implement TIP API support in line with market readiness and paced by the availability of compatible third-party systems, the company explained.   

“Imagine is proactively aligned with the TIP mission, because we listen to our customers who tell us that the only way to rapidly move toward the audience-based, cross-platform future of TV is through open standards and easy-to-use models for integration,” said Rob Malcolm, general manager of ad tech for Imagine Communications. “We take a modular approach to traffic systems and have made a significant investment in developing all the open APIs that customers and partners will need to integrate systems and modernize the ad tech stack.”

Imagine’s continuing enhancements to the OSI system will enable broadcasters to use TIP APIs to achieve the following benefits:

• Automated log times: The addition of automated log times via TIP API increases operational efficiency, accelerates tracking of advertising campaigns and drives monetization.
• Real-time inventory avails: Enhanced inventory avails, including real-time updates via TIP API, speed transactions and sales system visibility, accelerating time to market.
• Streamlined integration: Enhanced TIP API support makes it easy to access and integrate with third-party Order Management Systems (OMS), the company reported. 

Malcolm adds, “Our ongoing TIP implementations will enable customers to speed transactions, reduce admin tasks and errors, and maximize interoperability — easing the migration to new transaction models such as audience-based and cross-platform sales.”

OSI Traffic & Billing enables North American television, cable and radio channels, networks and groups to manage mission-critical operations efficiently, profitably and with unparalleled control. The modular solution provides easy-to-use, powerful tools for traffic, accounting, and yield management — and closes the loop with simple, powerful integrations with playout automation, dynamic ad insertion and other operational systems.

“The ecosystem of broadcasters, cable operators, agencies and our technology providers continue to synchronize increased automation of the local media ecosystem across television and video,” added James Southern, president of Frontrow Advisory and program leader of the TIP Initiative. “Imagine Communications’ accelerated adoption of TIP interfaces demonstrates their commitment to an open, standards-based approach for the efficient transaction of broadcast TV spot inventory.” 

Find more information about the benefits and access the open standard on the TVB.org website. 

For more information about Imagine Communications’ products and solutions, visit https://www.imaginecommunications.com

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit has announced that Toni Coonce has been appointed chief revenue officer at the company, which is a leading provider of broadcast TV and radio inventory and revenue workflow management solutions. 

In addition to serving as CRO, Toni will continue in her role as executive vice president of sales, managing all revenue and coordinating between clients and managing directors across all verticals.

Toni joined WideOrbit in 2006 as a TV account executive, rising through the ranks to become director of TV sales in 2016, vice president of TV sales in 2018, and most recently, executive vice president of sales in 2021. Prior to WideOrbit, Toni held a variety of positions with Marketron. Toni has proven herself as an exceptional sales executive, working with many of WideOrbit’s largest clients.

“Toni’s strong leadership skills, hard work and dedication make a huge, positive impact on WideOrbit," said Eric Mathewson, WideOrbit founder and CEO. “Those attributes, combined with her consistent ability to forge strong relationships with clients, make her promotion to Chief Revenue officer both well-earned and well deserved.” 

In addition to her responsibilities at WideOrbit, Toni serves on the board of the International Radio and Television Society Foundation (IRTS), which is dedicated to building future leaders and increasing diversity in the media industry. Toni also supports and participates with TVB’s NEXT Women program. Underwritten by WideOrbit, the program helps identify, prepare and advocate for women in the local broadcast television industry as they aspire to leadership roles.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to collaborate across teams and verticals within WideOrbit,” said Coonce. “My focus will remain on sales, on growing revenue, and most importantly, on nurturing the client relationships that are at the heart of everything we do.”

TORONTO—Constellation Software Inc. and its subsidiary Lumine Group Inc. have announced they have entered into a binding agreement to acquire WideOrbit, which is a major supplier of ad management software to broadcast stations, networks and other media outlets in the U.S. 

Constellation also announced plans to spin off its Lumine Group subsidiary. Once that transaction is completed, WideOrbit will become a wholly owned subsidiary within Lumine Group and operate as an autonomous business unit within the Lumine Group’s portfolio of companies.  

“Today’s news marks the next step in Lumine Group’s journey towards building the world's leading network of communications & media software companies,” explained David Nyland, CEO of Lumine Group. “Since our inception, our focus has been on building a strong market share within the telecommunications industry, and today we proudly count industry-leading companies within our portfolio of companies. WideOrbit will accelerate Lumine Group’s expansion into the media space, bringing a wealth of domain knowledge, an experienced leadership team, and a customer ecosystem we look forward to continue serving. We are excited to dive deeper into the media space during this period of rapid innovation, and partner with WideOrbit to assist us in navigating the ecosystem and pursuing further acquisitions.”

“Lumine Group is the ideal partner to support WideOrbit’s continued growth ambitions,” added Eric Mathewson, founder and CEO of WideOrbit. “Our partnership with Lumine will build on our 23-year legacy and contribute to a stronger future for the company, our employees, and our valued clients. At a time when the media advertising landscape is evolving and generating more demand, the timing could not be more optimal. I look forward to what the future holds for WideOrbit and Lumine Group.”

The companies said that WideOrbit had an annual gross revenue in 2021 of about $167 million and that it employs approximately 450 employees.

The acquisition of WideOrbit is currently expected to close in Q1 2023, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

Under the proposed deal, Constellation will remain the majority shareholder of Lumine Group and will distribute to the current Constellation shareholders, pro rata and by way of a dividend-in-kind, nominal value subordinate voting shares of Lumine Group, the company said. 

The spin-off and listing are subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and acceptance of a final prospectus by the Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

The purchase of WideOrbit will be financed with funding from Constellation and a banking partner. Consideration for the purchase will be in the form of a cash payment plus the issuance to eligible WideOrbit shareholders of 13.83% of the shares of Lumine Group (on a fully diluted basis), Constellation said. 

SAN FRANCISCO—As networks broadcast and stream a growing number of channels, the technology that controls everything from ad sales to traffic and billing is evolving as well. New tools and strategies abound for helping content creators handle the growth of those channels. And as the name implies, today’s broadcast management systems have expanded and grown to offer content creators a better means of achieving that control. 

The goals? As varied as the content itself: Reducing operational complexity and costs. Selling advertising at a local and national level and on multiple platforms. Addressing HR issues. Automating order workflows. Identifying and executing audience-targeted orders at scale. 

Open Sourced
As the requests grow, broadcast management systems have responded—some by building  systems around a flexible, open source architecture; others by consolidating assets across a portfolio in an effort to respond more effectively to media buyers.

“The increase in channels has made it even more critical to ensure that organizations have a flexible and adaptable BMS,” said Jimshade Chaudhari, senior vice president of product for Marketron. “Given the increase in channels and the associated content, manual processes and siloed systems can no longer meet broadcaster’s needs. “ 

Earlier this year, two companies joined forces around the concept of standards-based platforms, open source architecture. For the Operative and Imagine Communications, that means ingesting orders from Imagine’s GamePlan ad decision and optimization engine from Operative’s cloud-native sales platform AOS, a partnership that enables a buyer to target audiences across different impressions—including geographic location or device type—as well as process orders across all types of different platforms using Imagine inventory management solutions.

”Our partnership with Operative enables our clients to streamline their operations across multiple media forms and to address the increasing desire to be able to sell on an audience basis,” said Tom Cotney, CEO of Imagine Communications.

Audience First
Those types of partnerships highlight the importance of taking an audience-first approach to selling advertising. Since audiences are more fragmented than ever, there is less guarantee that buying a specific TV show will deliver the specific audience. This is where NextGen TV steps in. The technology can deliver this by relying on consumer-driven demand to keep local TV competitive with growing OTT platforms. 

“And while this will level the playing field by allowing local TV to meet their advertisers’ changing needs… creating a common currency between linear and all digital assets will make it easier for broadcasters to sell their multiplatform ads,” Chaudhari said. “It’s important that modern BMS platforms recognize this and prepare broadcasters for this future.”

Over the past decade, broadcast management technology has steadily grown from standalone traffic and billing systems into integrated tools that manage content throughout its life cycle. That’s been a priority for companies like Myers, whose ProTrack software solution ProTrack centralizes content and allows users to acquire, schedule, monetize and distribute content from a single point of control.

Systems that were traditionally considered core traffic and billing are now expanding their systems with add-ons and built-in third-party technology integrations. ProTrack, which made its name in the traffic and billing space, now integrates with automation, accounts receivable and media asset management. 

Myers provides broadcast management systems to the vast majority of PBS member stations across the country, a unique challenge since public media companies must meet all the same responsibilities as a commercial network but with far fewer resources and revenue opportunities. Today, must-have features for networks like PBS now include automation log monitoring, schedule placement confirmation and report generation.

Unifying Operations
Other systems strive to meet multiple goals while simultaneously prepping to handle multichannel environments. Advanced planning, rights and scheduling, spot placement technology and ad sales and commercial scheduling are part of Imagine’s Ad Tech product suite. Technologies like the company’s LandmarkOSI traffic and billing system, Broadcast Master management suite for scheduling and finance or xG Linear scalable traffic for MVPD are designed to competently manage single or multichannel environments across multiple platforms. 

Unifying station operations on a shared technology infrastructure is another key priority for broadcasters with multiple stations in multiple markets. 

Large ownership groups are using WideOrbit’s WO Traffic system as a foundation to leverage new revenue streams by merging station operations on a single, collectively shared foundation. Like the infrastructure behind other traffic systems, WO Traffic integrates with other suites like analytics, sales, payments and airtimes while WideOrbit Placer works to determine proper spot placement for all advertisers as well as simplifies billing. 

That last piece was particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic. Content creators needed to simplify the process of obtaining receivables, such as when religious broadcaster Bonneville International used the WideOrbit WO Payments Suite to help make decisions about clients who were struggling financially because of the pandemic.

“Because we have all the industry information coming out of our WideOrbit system, [we looked at industries like] the entertainment or tourist industries [and could be] more flexible [about payments] because that’s an industry that [was] hit harder [by the pandemic],” said Ken Nate, CFO and executive vice president for Bonneville. “We think this creates an opportunity for improvement down the road for both us and our clients.”

Streamline Internal Processes
Managing resources was also the impetus behind a UK studio selecting a new media operations platform to manage everything from studio bookings to quote creation. A joint venture of Sky and NBCUniversal, Sky Studios Elstree is using the Xytech Media Operations Platform resource management software to help streamline the film and TV studio’s internal processes like cost management and resource scheduling. 

That was also behind Viasat Broadcasting’s decision to turn to Xytech to manage staff and bookings for the network. With about 400 employees and 64 Viasat channels, the European TV operator needed an integrated system to manage and report on all operational and financial activities. 

“Xytech software offers a multitude of features when it comes to handling the complex requirements of bookings,” said Matt Waldock, Xytech vice president and director of business development for EMEA. “Our Media Operations Platform allows for quick and efficient quote and order creation. As bookings are added or changed, the system updates the display in real time, putting automated financial transparency directly into clients’ hands,” he added.

With the continued expansion of alternate viewing platforms, local broadcast TV is changing the way viewers consume their content — which changes the way in which advertising has to be bought and sold. Broadcasters looking to maximize their current core business must also effectively manage revenue that is now coming from OTT and third-party digital advertising. 

As with other broadcast management systems, the Integration Suite from Marketron is designed to serve as a single ecosystem. Working with business platforms like Salesforce and NetSuite, the system can handle billing export features, digital advertising, social media verification and electronic sales orders. 

The system works side by side with the Marketron REV sales platform, which addresses proposal creation, linear TV order entry and real-time data reporting leading to more revenue on every order via intelligent dynamic pricing and direct traffic integration, Chaudhari said. “All of this technology is built on an open platform that can be integrated into broadcasters existing systems via APIs, helping broadcasters augment their capabilities without having to rip out their core infrastructure,” he said. 

To demonstrate its efforts to accommodate an expanding array of advertisers, Marketron last month added new capabilities to its Marketron NXT digital ad platform that enable all broadcast and media companies to deliver digital ad solutions to advertisers operating in restricted industries, including cannabis, CBD, gambling, alcohol, fireworks and politics, thereby driving revenue from previously limited verticals.

As the market changes, so too must modern broadcast management systems — from aggregating data to holistic business-level reporting to ensuring the right programming appears on the right channel. 

“This level of flexibility prepares broadcasters for continued success as advertiser and consumer demands evolve,” Chaudhari said. 

HAILEY, Idaho—Marketron today announced Salesforce, HubSpot and NetSuite connectors, the first in its new Marketron Integration Suite.

The connectors automate data sharing between Marketron traffic systems and three platforms. The connectors streamline data exchange between CRM and accounting platforms. They reduce data silos, eliminate duplication and normalization issues, improve data accuracy and enable greater efficiency and agility across sales, traffic and billing operations, the company said.

The Salesforce Connector enables Marketron customers to sync their Salesforce instance with Marketron data in near real time. They can use the connector to pull order details and order projection data into Salesforce. Users can leverage Salesforce as a proposal system and bring opportunities into the Marketron platform to simplify order creation, the company said.

The HubSpot Connector allows advertiser and order summary data to populate in HubSpot from Marketron, enabling near real-time account syncing and the ability to view historical and projected sales activity. Marketron customers can leverage HubSpot as a proposal system and ingest deals into Marketron's platform to streamline order creation, it said.

Using the NetSuite Connector, Marketron users can connect to a NetSuite account and keep it up to date with Marketron transaction and AR data across customers, contacts, sales orders, invoices and customer payments. When users automate the flow of data into the NetSuite General Ledger from Marketron's platforms, manual processes are removed, and invoicing is quicker and easier, the company said.

"Our connectors with Salesforce, HubSpot, and NetSuite allow Marketron customers to begin sharing data with these platforms quickly and easily without involvement of development teams," said Greg Aimone, vice president of professional services and presales at Marketron. 

"Using these prebuilt integrations with leading third-party platforms, customers can quickly start reaping the benefits of increased automation, broader visibility across key business tools, and complete data access," he said.

The Marketron Integration Suite leverages APIs, connectors and custom integrations to facilitate secure and efficient data sharing functionality for customers using Marketron for traffic order management, the company said.

Giving Marketron customers the ability to consolidate disparate data sources, including linear, O&O and third-party digital advertising systems, in a single ecosystem, the Marketron Integration Suite helps users to reduce bottlenecks, realize greater visibility and drive greater innovation, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

ONTARIO—The fundamental nature of TV broadcasting is changing, and the companies who make its back office systems—business management (formerly “traffic and billing”), human resources, and scheduling—are changing as well to keep up with the industry’s evolving multiplatform needs. To maximize the continuing usefulness of their products, these vendors are watching broadcast industry trends very closely.

THE MOVE TO CLOUD

The software advances being made by Imagine Communications, Marketron, Myers, Xytech, and WideOrbit, among others, in their back office systems are an indirect response to eight key broadcasting advances.

According to these companies, the biggest trend is the ongoing migration of TV broadcasting—in all respects—onto third-party cloud platforms.

“Transitioning to the cloud provides numerous efficiencies for both software vendors and clients alike,” said Crist Myers, president and CEO of Myers. “Less onsite hardware, improved security, unlimited scalability, ease of accessibility, guaranteed uptime, automatic software updates: This list of benefits goes on and on.”

The second trend affecting business management systems are emerging technologies such as ATSC 3.0. “These technologies are going to usher in increased advertising opportunities and a much higher levels of personalization,” Myers added. “Linear schedules are going to become multidimensional, so we are staying focussed on both expanding our existing toolsets as well as introducing new ones.”

MOBILE AND INTEROPERABILITY

Xytech COO Greg Dolan said that mobile and the need for interoperability between digital and linear platforms are driving his company’s product development.

“One of our goals here at Xytech is to put curated functionality and data into the hands of the right people at the right time with a mobile application,” he told TV Tech. “Another goal is to ensure our system seamlessly integrates with other systems. This is vital for our customers to save time, effort and reduce mistakes.” 

Over at Imagine Communications, Ad Tech Products Senior Vice President Brad Herman cited the convergence of broadcast digital/linear TV services and the one-to-one targeting of advertising as two trends that business management software has to address. 

“By aggregating the audience, a broadcaster can develop a single, intelligent campaign that runs across linear and digital, taking the best of both and combining them to improve overall advertising,” Herman said. “Meanwhile, individual ad targeting has been seen as a unique benefit of digital services. But with broadcasters putting linear television services on IP streams, ATSC 3.0 offering options for targeting, and mapping non-Nielsen audiences to content, the options for tightly addressed commercials are increasing.”

AUTOMATING TRADITIONAL PROCESSES

Increasing automation across every aspect of TV broadcasting is the fifth key trend that business management software providers are responding to.

“Many people think immediately of programmatic sales when they hear the word ‘automation,’” said Will Offeman, WideOrbit’s chief product officer. “While that’s certainly part of it, it’s also about automating traditionally manual processes like the handling of Electronic Material Instructions; accounts receivable, collections, and payment processes; and automating makegoods as much as possible by offering suggestions based on an automated comparison of the advertiser’s needs—the right audience, at the right time, the right programming—against available inventory.”  

Marketron Vice President of Product Jimshade Chaudari sees three more trends that business management software is now addressing. First, “remote work is here to stay: While COVID continues to play havoc, it seems many employees prefer the ability to work remotely,” he said. Next, “broadcasters need technology that supports more than just linear ad tactics. Technology vendors need to offer solutions that support all ad types across proposals, orders, execution, performance reporting and billing.”

Finally, the speed and scale of broadcast operations are changing as broadcasters face increased competition in both programming and advertising. “As a result, they need technology that streamlines workflows with modern, easy-to-use interfaces,” said Chaudari. “TV groups should expect their technology vendors to offer API-based platforms that are interoperable with their other tools. They don’t have time to manually move data to understand the health of the business.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Mindful that change never stops, business management system vendors are looking out for the next big thing in TV broadcasting, and adjusting their products to deal with it.

Opinions vary on what it will be. “Clearly, the next big thing in the [broadcast] industry is the rollout and adoption of ATSC 3.0,” said Crist Myers. But Dolan disagrees. “The next big thing on the horizon is the use of optimization tools and artificial intelligence,” he said. 

According to Herman, “the next big thing will be platforms that combine the brand safety and premium viewing experience of linear broadcast with digital’s open architecture, high levels of automation and targetability—platforms that take the best of both linear and digital advertising experiences to improve both.” 

Offeman similarly sees the evolution in advanced advertising as having an enormous impact for TV broadcasters, but in a different way.

“As broadcasters make it easier for advertisers to buy their digital inventory, they’ll attract previously digital-first advertisers,” he said. “Those brands who are new to TV will discover the unmatchable value of unduplicated reach and of providing a shared, common experience. When that happens, broadcasters who are ready to offer both will have the advantage.” 

For his part, Chaudari is not so much focussed on what the next big thing will be, so much as he is with broadcasters being able to adjust to it.

“Whether it’s TIP-compliance or NextGen TV, broadcasters need to be thinking about future TV standards and the impact these will have on their operations and customer experience,” he said. To protect themselves, “Broadcasters should future-proof their technology stacks today with partners that are interoperable, cloud-based and offer centralized data warehousing to improve reporting.” 

SAN FRANCISCO—WideOrbit has announced the latest release of WO Traffic, the company’s flagship ad sales and commercial operations platform for TV and radio stations that is used by more than 90% of U.S. local TV stations. 

The WO Traffic v21.0 release includes new features and enhancements to help stations and station groups generate new revenue, reduce costs, and improve efficiency, the company said. 

“WideOrbit has always been committed to continuous innovation and investment in our core products and we’re proud to continue that tradition,” said Will Offeman, WideOrbit chief product officer. “Our 21.0 release of WO Traffic includes the Electronic Material Instructions module, a significant step forward in automation for what was previously a highly manual process, and just one of several new features designed to help our broadcast TV and radio customers maximize revenue, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.”

The introduction of the Electronic Material Instructions module marks the first automated solution to address the long-standing need to simplify and streamline the material instructions process, the company said. 

The Electronic Material Instructions licensed module integrations with several leading material instructions providers, including ECN, PremiumMedia360, ITN Networks, and SpotGenie. More integrations are coming soon, including Warren Lamb and vCreative. These integrations simplify the exchange of new and revised material instructions, helping broadcasters reduce errors (and costly makegoods) while increasing staff productivity.

WO Traffic v21.0 also introduces additional enhancements to improve efficiency, including easier, more intuitive log editing functionality; a new, customizable Inventory Analysis Report; improved New Orders navigation with easier property location and selection, and more.

For more information on the new features and enhancements available with WO Traffic v21.0, as well as improvements included in previous releases, request a recording of the recent webinar, One Platform, Multiple Solutions: What’s New in WO Traffic, here.

SAN FRANCISCO—It’s been called one of the most difficult aspects of running a broadcast station, and it’s easy to see why.

The business of managing a station ranges from integrating sales to linear playout. And even at its simplest, there are rights issues to account for, constantly changing scheduling drop-ins to track, and finance target points to consider.

Now, add to that a need for today’s business management systems technology to be easy to use and simultaneously robust enough to handle the complexities of an individual station’s requirements.

“BMS systems are about to hit a major market shift,” said Lorne Brown, president of SintecMedia in New York. One of those reasons: the need to properly manage multiple new channels. Legacy systems that have traditionally specialized in linear TV ad or digital ad management must now switch gears. What’s needed today are simple yet flexible ways to control data and access information across multiple channels.

Using Myers PBS can centralize content metadata in a comprehensive database

Click on the Image to Enlarge

“TV and digital media are converging, advertisers want to buy using new metrics and audience data, and advertising is being distributed across new channels and platforms,” Brown said.

STREAMLINING IN THE CLOUD

Today’s current BMS systems are attempting to manage those key priorities. To do so, they are tackling the process in new ways—ways that streamline and provide a clear view of both business targets and the inventory at hand to ultimately unify and simplify the business of running a station.

Some solutions are finding a future rooted in the cloud. By taking the integration and synchronization of media operations into a virtualized cloud environment, broadcasters are able to take advantage of what the cloud does best: decrease cost and improve workflow efficiencies.

Imagine Communications took this step with Imagine xG Schedule, the company’s first cloud-based planning and scheduling system for linear, on-demand and digital platforms. When combined with other Imagine solutions, including the Versio cloud-native playout system and Unified Distribution portfolio, the solution is designed to be a cohesive workflow solution.

ProConsultant Informatique also took this step when it integrated its BMS LOUISE business management system with the Adways cloud-based platform—but in a unique way that pulls in a creative advertising component.

The Adways interactive video technology platform allows broadcasters to create and embed HTML5 interactive videos into creative content. The interactive video can be reviewed on any device, and each click is tracked—and fed back into BMS LOUISE—so broadcasters receive a dynamic report of points of interest and user engagement.

BMS LOUISE itself serves as the backbone to this new feature by providing a centralized management of media as well as technical, operational and business metadata.

FOLLOWING THE ‘CHAIN OF COMMAND’

Back on the ground, there’s another trend in business management systems, and that involves finding a tightly tailored solution that will allow a broadcaster to focus on what matters to an individual network or station.

For Army Television, the U.S. Army’s official audiovisual production organization, that focus included managing a wide variety of people, studios, facilities and equipment both within the Pentagon and in remote locations.

Talk about adhering to the “chain of command”—if the production team says it is unable to fulfill a request by a general to videotape an event, they better have a very specific reason why, said Kevin Beverley, Army Television engineering branch chief.

“It’s critical that we have a reliable scheduling system in place to make sure that we are utilizing our available resources to their maximum effectiveness at all times,” he said. In response to this need, the network installed a ScheduALL scheduling system from NetInsight to manage professional staff, work orders, as well as the use of production facilities and distribution of equipment.

Individual team members use the system in various ways: to see their assignment schedule in real time, or to determine how many events are scheduled in a given week, including all available staff, facilities and equipment.

Without such a system, “there is no way Army Television would be able to successfully achieve and maintain the operations tempo which has become our norm,” Beverley said. He estimates that scheduling system efficiencies result in up to 30 percent higher workload capability than the network could otherwise achieve. Customized solutions added to the ScheduALL system include project management, personnel manager, media manager and invoicing, among others.

The software is one such solution that gathers customizable features under the BMS umbrella; features like real-time conflict management, project management capabilities, integrated accounting tools and event-based notifications.

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS

Other BMS solutions are specifically looking at the best ways to address advertising placement across myriad multimedia delivery modes, including traditional broadcast, Web, new media and mobile. As campaigns become increasingly complex, so advertisers demand new levels of accountability.

The other key feature is optimizing use of inventory.

BSkyB worked with Imagine Communications to build an ad sales solution around the U.K. network’s Ad Smart initiative, a personalized TV advertising program that sends personalized ads to different households even though they are viewing the same programming.

That was the impetus behind BSkyB’s implementation of a Landmark Sales broadcast and multimedia sales solution: to maximize sales and operational efficiencies across 600 channels in 50 countries. The broadcaster worked with Imagine Communications to build an ad sales solution around BSkyB’s Ad Smart initiative, a personalized TV advertising program that sends personalized ads to different households even though they are viewing the same programming.

The solution has helped BSkyB address particular challenges, including core spot sales, and addressable advertising, the company said.

Gone are the days when just traffic, ads and billing were leading the charge. Today BMS systems are addressing personnel management, labor management, billing and receivables, external costs, media management, shipping — even down to managing bandwidth using new visual bandwidth calendars.

And for PBS, it meant using BMS to integrate a brand new channel altogether.

That’s what PBS faced this summer when it kicked off efforts to launch a new 24/7 PBS KIDS channel. This new service will air on more than 100 PBS stations via TV and live streaming by the end of 2017.

Preparations to coordinate programming and scheduling within the network’s existing infrastructure began months in advance of the launch, with PBS enlisting the ProTrack broadcast management system from Myers to download schedule and program metadata directly into PBS’s existing scheduling environment.

According to Crist Myers, president and CEO of Myers, this allowed the stations to focus resources on other important aspects of the project, like taking advantage of localization opportunities prior to playout.

With ProTrack, PBS can centralize content metadata in a comprehensive database, Myers said. By standardizing metadata and its usage, media facilities can streamline distribution workflows and improve operational transparency.

Like the majority of today’s BMS systems, it supports a variety of distribution types, workflows and formats, can be expanded via add-on modules that extend ProTrack's capabilities.

Broadcasters are also pressed to contend with scheduling for multiple outlets. That was a priority for SintecMedia during the development of its traffic and revenue management products—including OnAir, IBMS and Broadway—which are designed to manage traffic and sales operations across properties and media platforms with a single system.

Broadcasters like Fox, however, are bundling features beyond just simple traffic and billing. “OnBoard can allow [Fox] to package and sell audiences, as well as our basic content, more effectively and efficiently,” said Dan Callahan, vice president of programmatic sales.

For other broadcasters, the priority is to install business management systems that can tie together all inventory into a single transparent portal. OnAir helped NBC bring together all of its broadcast and cable inventory tech stacks, which helped the Peacock Network operate more on a portfolio level, said Sheelpa Patel, senior vice president of sales solutions for NBC Universal. “[This] allows us to be able to look at all of our inventory across the portfolio in one single solution,” she said.

This type of control allows NBC to enable emerging sales strategies as well as help enable new operational efficiencies, she added.