NEW YORK: The Television Bureau of Advertising said Starcom MediaVest tapped into ePort, the TVB’s electronic media marketplace. The Bureau said Starcom made an order last week, marking it the largest agency yet to use the platform.
“This is an important milestone on the way to our goal of developing local broadcast television’s equivalent of the interstate highway system,” the bureau’s executive vice president, Abby Auerbach, said. “We want every buyer in the country to connect electronically with every television station and/or rep firm and make our medium the easiest to buy.”
More than 30,000 orders have been sent by 110 agencies and/or advertisers via ePort to 930 TV stations over the past year, the bureau sad. The total dollar amount to date is close to $300 million.
Horizon Media in New York was one of the first agencies to use ePort when the platform was launched last year. Nancy Larkin of Horizon said that in the early stages of makegood testing, the agency had 50 percent fewer discrepancies than with traditional methods.
Agencies recently tapping into ePort include ITN, KSL Media, Southwest Media and US International. ePort is funded by local broadcasters and is free to their customers.
