Streaming and What It Means to the Business

Think Local Stream EverywhereLocal content has experienced a resurgence in recent years and in the age of streaming new platforms enable that programming particularly local news content to live on alternative platforms via inhome screens as well as apps accessed on mobile devices and tabletsquotBroadcasters are already a trusted source of information and that gives us an advantage on the validity of the content says Becky Meyer SVP National Sales at Gray Televisionamp8220Streaming has opened a door for us to take our content and make it relevant to viewers on alternative platforms and it provides all the other opportunities in terms of timeshifting mobility and potentially reaching new audiences who arenamp8217t tethered to traditional television setsamp8221 says Al Lustgarten SVP Technology ampamp Information Services at Hearst Television quotItamp8217s a big opportunity for usquotHow big quotWe have had multiple digital products in play which were predominantly locally driven revenue opportunitiesquot Lustgarten says quotMore recently we have seen explosive growth in our national business associated with streaming amp8211 partly due to advertisersamp8217 increasing interest in these platforms and due to our own investment in resources and technologyquotIndeed services from Roku to Pluto to Sling TV are fortifying their offerings with local programming Foxowned adsupported streamer Tubi for one launched quotNews on Tubiquot in 2020 with live news from Fox local television stations and has grown the local news offering to close to 100 stationsEvolving the Sales ProcessAs quickly as streaming has catapulted however the buyer workflow hasnamp8217t entirely caught up due to a variety of factors and nuances Among them are silod inflexible buy and sellside platforms inconsistencies in the ability to access inventory among companies and agencies and lapses in the way business is transacted Evolving the process is an area for which MASC members are continuing to provide thought leadershipMany of the larger agencies already have built streaming into their budgets as have a number of agencies and companies in local markets that have been buying streaming for several years For some smaller DMAs however streaming still may not have hit home yet say industry thought leaders While streaming has myriad benefits compared to advertising through traditional linear TV given the price point on streaming some still feel they can reach a given market more efficiently with a broadcast schedule than with a streaming scheduleAdditionally different stakeholders are in different stages of transition Some companies are switching over to impressionbased advertising while others are still using cost per point as a benchmark Thereamp8217s momentum growing around taking displaced linear dollars and moving them to streaming because of the inventory opportunities streaming offers but itamp8217s not always an applestoapples comparisonquotThere need to be changes on the buy side because there are a lot of conversations about fluidity and being able to look at video holistically as video But Iamp8217ve gotten frustration from the local buyeramp8217s deskquot says Meyer quotThey donamp8217t have the ability to efficiently buy one DMA one way and buy another market another way So there isnamp8217t as much of the flexibility on the agency side to buy the content on whatever platform Your audience is at the planning and the account level not necessarily the media execution levelquotLustgarten says getting the vendor community to embrace the changes as well as the technical infrastructure to evolve is key quotThe notion that there are still siloed buyside platforms siloed sellside platforms that donamp8217t talk to one another thereamp8217s complexity to our business and the platforms arenamp8217t flexible enough to embrace these new trends in crossplatform fulfillmentquot he says quotAs a technologist Iamp8217m working with the vendors to say amp8216Weamp8217ve got to adapt these platforms and I know youamp8217re going to tell me itamp8217s going to take two years to do it but we ought to move quicker to meet the needs of our customers39quotWhat can move the needle with regard to both fragmentation of business transactions and services and fragmentation of tech solutions One organization thatamp8217s immersed in accelerating solutions is the TV Interface Practices TIP Initiative the media industry group promoting open interfaces to streamline local broadcast TV advertising transactions so buy and sellside platforms can better communicatequotThe industry embracing that is a foundational element of what we can do to move forwardquot Lustgarten says quotAnd then there are grassroots interactions with our vendors to say 39Hereamp8217s what weamp8217re seeing39 MASC helps me see what the industry trends are what are my peers hearing and I can say to vendors 39This is what I think is the direction we need to move forward and hereamp8217s what you need to do to adapt your platform to accommodate that39quotCrossPlatform Measurement ampamp DAIAs streaming flourishes MASC believes crossplatform measurement is table stakes in todayamp8217s ad sales transactionsMeyer reports that all of her peers at the recent NSACSSAC committee meeting she attended agreed on the need for a standard for impressions quotWe have a lot of agencies dipping into alternatives to the standard agesex demo but only in small waysamp160The standards are so different between linear and digital impressions and there isnamp8217t a way to holistically sell them without figuring that outquot she says quotI believe this is more buysidedriven as we still have agencies that have not transitioned to impressionbased buying which ultimately holds all of us backquotThe proliferation of different standards in these early stages has formed a Venn diagram of sorts with different types of attribution from not just measuring households on a broadcast schedule but looking at the incremental reach with streaming website traffic and sales attribution associated with eachquotCrossplatform buys are not currently a significant component of our overall sales but as they grow the use of impressions as currency will become more importantquot Lustgarten says quotAdditionally two years ago attribution was just an industry buzzword and now itamp8217s part of our vernacular Itamp8217s becoming a common point of discussion on the sales front and is clearly a differentiator today Tomorrow it may become 39table stakes39quotATSC 30 will be one of the major opportunities to bring these techniques to broadcasters but it will take some before there is sufficient settop penetration for this to scalequot he adds quotIn the meantime we can develop the tech platforms to facilitate these types of products and we can educate our sellers to understand the opportunityquotKeeping Customers in The LoopAs with any evolving phenomenon the companies that are best optimizing the streaming era are those that are best informed and are passing on that knowledge to their customers in an evernoisy and fragmented marketplacequotPeople read headlines and think broadcast is dead when they see more viewers are streaming But they are streaming broadcastquot says Meyer quotWe are in that mix and we are all working hard to have those relationships that will carry through to next generation to make sure we are there on the menu of choices to be selected and viewedquotquotIt is an education processquot concurs Lustgarten quotWe have to let our viewers know the content is available on these platforms and educate them how to get it And then once itamp8217s there we have these opportunities to sell and market these new platforms in new and unique waysquotThis column was written by Media Ad Sales Council founder Mark Gorman CEO Matrix Solutions and Brenda Hetrick President Matrix Solutions with contributions from MASC members Al Lustgarten SVP Technology and Information Services Hearst Television Becky Meyer SVP National Sales Gray Television Peter Jones Head of Local SalesDirector Strategic Partnerships Premion Melanie Webb Vice President Sales Operations TEGNA Joe Lampert Senior Program Manager CNOmniMedia Jenn Scilabro SVP Digital Sales Nexstar and Michael Barbetta Senior Director Revenue ampamp Strategy EW ScrippsPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Streaming and What It Means to the Business

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