Local TV Ads Must Be Easier To Buy: WideOrbit’s Mathewson

SAN JUAN, PR -- Even in the era of hyper-targeted digital advertising, local TV is a great medium in which to buy ads - but it is going to need efficiencies in order for media agencies to buy them.

That is the view of one software vendor aiming to bring simplicity to a local TV supply chain he says is too complex.

"The biggest problem with local (TV) is it's historically been too hard to buy (ads)," says Eric Mathewson, CEO and co-founder of WideOrbit.

"The (ad) agency has not made money buying local and hence it's just not that exciting to recommend to your marketer client.

"You should buy more local.

It's very effective because it's geo-targeted and you buy programmes, so on and so forth - but it's not been effective to the bottom line of the agency." San Francisco-based WideOrbit offers a software platform that handles scheduling, billing, content management and invoicing for mostly local TV ads.

WideOrbit’s programmatic TV open marketplace lets ad buyers make automated, data-informed offers in more than 1,000 stations and networks.

"With our system, instead of taking 50 (agency) people to buy 70 markets over two weeks in local, four or five people can buy it in a couple of days," Mathewson adds.

And WideOrbit has scale.

"We're now live in 93% of TV stations in the US, about a third of cable nets, half of radio, 75% of sports nets," Mathewson says.

"We're processing $37 billion in ad spend from order entry through receipt of cash." Matthewson was interviewed by Furious Corp CEO Ashley J.

Swartz at Beet Retreat San Juan 2020, where he was a participant.

This video was produced  at the Beet Retreat San Juan 2020 sponsored by 605, DISH Media, NBCU, Roundel & Tubi.

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