Broadcasters Aim To Avoid ‘Race To The Bottom’ With Streaming Ad Inventory

Broadcasters Aim To Avoid ‘Race To The Bottom’ With Streaming Ad Inventory - NewsLab

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TV station groups have more platforms than ever between linear over-the-air television, diginets, websites, free advertising-supported television (FAST) channels, apps and more. But even with all of that, the business of local television continues to be focused on serving local communities with quality content they can trust, helping local businesses solve their problems, and having good relationships, said panelists at TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on last week.

“It’s less about the platforms and the technologies for us, it’s more about the simplification of the sales processes,” said Erin Overstreet, VP, digital sales, Gray Television. “If [our clients] are going in with a platform in mind, we’ve already kind of missed the mark with that client. Clients are throwing things at us left and right – all the new shiny objects – and it’s our job to stay focused on what they want to accomplish.”

“Early on in the process with the customer, we want to agree on what the expectation of outcome is and then work backwards from there,” said Missy Evenson, VP, sales, local media, E.W. Scripps, which owns TV stations as well as Ion, Scripps News and several multicast networks.

Stations’ digital extensions allow them to reach viewers where they are, whether that’s on their phones, computers or their actual televisions. Still, questions remain: How can account executives best craft cross-platform media plans that achieve their clients’ outcome goals and how can they instill value in their digital advertising inventory when there is so much of it in