Katz, Cox Reps, Strata Adopt TVB's ePort

The two leading rep firms along with the broadcast software developer will provide the financial support to maintain and further develop the system for buying and selling spot TV.
TVNewsCheck,

The two leading U.S. TV station rep companies — Katz Media and Cox Reps — are joining with broadcast software developer Strata to maintain and continue the development of ePort, the Internet-based system for buying and selling spot TV advertising launched by TVB four years ago.

"ePort needs a financial support system," said Leo MacCourtney, of Katz Television, who is acting as a spokesman for the new ePort consortium. "Both Katz and Cox are stepping up to say, 'It's very important that local television have an electronic platform to conduct business.'"

Story continues after the ad

The handoff was effective Sept. 1.

Determined to strip some of the transactional costs out of spot TV and make it more competitive, TVB and its member companies spent millions of dollars to get ePort up and running in February 2007. It was a pet project of former TVB President Chris Rohrs, who retired at the  end of 2009.

But last year, TVB's new regime headed by Steve Lanzano began asking why a trade association dedicated to promoting spot TV should be so deeply involved in what is essentially software development and maintenance. He began looking for some other entity to adopt it.

“The reps are perfectly positioned to become the facilitators of e-business for our industry,” said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting and chairman ofTVB. “This agreement ensures that any local broadcast TV customer, of any size, can do business electronically with any rep firm or TV station. That will be key to the future success of our industry.”

Strata's involvement makes sense. Under contract with TVB, it has been the lead developer of the system.

According to MacCourtney, ePort will complement the 25-year-old DARE system that the reps have used to transact national spot business with the major buying agencies with Donovan buying software.

"Now the smaller agencies that don't use DARE and may want to deal directly with stations have an option," he said. "ePort is another electronic highway by which you can conduct business."

MacCourtney said Cox and Katz are making a "substantial" financial commitment to sustain ePort, but declined to define "substantial."

"Our thinking is that this is an investment back into the marketplace. It continues the ePort functionality for the broadcasting community, and gives a base for Strata to design even better functionality going forward," he said.

Since Lanzano moved in at TVB, the association has done little to promote the use of ePort. But MacCourtney said that there has been "no diminution of service" and that the system continues to handle a steady flow of business. ePort transactions now exceed $2 billion, he said.

Representatives of Cox Reps and Strata could not be immediately reached for comment.

Edit Article

Tags

Comments (3) -

jdshaw Nickname posted 9 months ago
|
Petry is obviously now considered third tier and irrelevant.
JackBauer24 Nickname posted 9 months ago
|
So tell me, what's the ROI for Cox and Katz on this? Is there a real advantage besides grabbing a headline in the trades? Is NCC irrelevant now, too? Enlighten me.
jimkeel Nickname posted 9 months ago
|
Well then I guess the O&O's are third tier and irrelevant also??

Today's Top Stories

Classifieds

The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2778.79 -34.90 (-1.24%)
NYSE 7427.74 -52.69 (-0.70%)
S&P 500 1295.22 -9.64 (-0.74%)
Updated 05/21 7:50ä ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content

Ratings

Overnights, adults 18-49 for 5月 17, 2012
  • 1.
    3.0/9
  • 2.
    2.5/7
  • 3.
    2.4/7
  • 4.
    1.5/4
  • 5.
    1.1/3
  • 6.
    0.3/1
Source: Nielsen
Reviews
Opinions
Features
  • David Wiegand

    Fans of Sex and the City have finally gotten their wish: Their beloved sex-focused sitcom is back on the air ... sort of. The four women have become four men, of course, and the writing isn't as good. Oh, and the laugh track so annoying, it's offensive. And did I mention that the costumes would be considered fashionable if you were holding a yard sale? Men at Work on TBS is almost quaint, it's so old fashioned. If it had any meat on its bones, you'd be tempted to say it's the sadly ignoble epitome of TV's long-festering emasculated-men syndrome. But it's so much of a big, forgettable, innocuous shrug, it's not even worth any actual vitriol.

  • Mike Hale

    The USA Network's motto is "Characters Welcome." Apparently they're especially welcome if they resemble Oscar Madison and Felix Unger. Already stocked with Odd Couple knockoffs in Psych and White Collar, USA adds to its inventory Common Law, another comic crime-fighting show about mismatched partners. But this latest entry exhibits very little of that kind of spark as it tries to wring laughs from the juxtaposition of counseling and police work. It looks too flat and schematically plotted to succeed as the type of lightweight summer fun we’ve come to expect from USA.

  • Joanne Ostrow

    Johnny Carson: Fantastic entertainer, miserable human being. That's the lasting message of Johnny Carson: King of Late Night, the new PBS American Masters film, a rich history of a rare product of television who dominated the small screen for decades. Unprecedented access to personal archives plus all existing episodes of The Tonight Show (1962-92), distinguishes this film by Peter Jones. Telling interviews with family and colleagues, including second wife Joanne Carson, former Tonight Show executive producer Peter Lassally and a number of biographers sharpen the picture. The clips are carefully selected to illustrate specific personality traits, the performance highlights are given context and meaning beyond funny lines and memorable moments.

  • Hank Stuever

    AMC's The Pitch is a sharply-made if slightly off-putting reality series that follows different advertising agencies each week as they compete for new accounts. The inspiration for the show — made clear by its own ad campaign — is to harness some of the verve generated by the network's acclaimed Mad Men. The Pitch has a way of making the ad world seem like a real downer — a repugnant exercise in egotism laced with depressing bouts of creative compromise.

  • Tim Goodman

    HBO's Veep stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as former Sen. Selina Meyer, who accepts the vice presidential duty and regrets it almost immediately: She has no real power and gets muscled by the Senate, Congress and the (so-far-unseen) president, who delegates all the truly crappy jobs to her. Louis-Dreyfus has found perhaps her best post-Seinfeld role and takes to it with such fervor — the constant swearing, the barely veiled desire to become president, the unhappy give-and-take with other politicians and a delightful disdain for average citizens — that you can't help but applaud what is clearly an Emmy-worthy effort. Her work alone makes Veep a gem, but there's even more to like.

This advertisement will close automatically in  second(s). You will see this ad no more than once a day. Skip ad