TVB’s ePort, the electronic bridge that enables eBusiness transactions between stations, agencies and rep firms, passed the billion-dollar mark in order volume last week, says the Television Bureau of Advertising.
“We are well on our way to our ultimate goal: making local broadcast television the medium that is easiest to buy and steward,” said TVB President Steve Lanzano. “And ePort’s momentum continues to build.”
Abby Auerbach, TVB’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer who has spearheaded the ePort effort, said, “With new agencies coming aboard every month and buy/sell systems completing their change-management interfaces, we look forward to tremendous volume growth for ePort for the second half of 2010.”
During the past three years, electronic orders have been sent by 185 agencies/advertisers via ePort to over 1,089 TV stations and all of the national rep firms. Some of the heaviest ePort users include ITN Networks, Horizon Media, Media AdVentures, and Publicis Group. Agencies and advertisers continue to sign on to ePort, most recently including Buying Time, Education Corporation of America, Siboney USA (one of several Hispanic agencies now using ePort), and Waterfront Strategies (one of several political agencies using ePort to help manage the demands of the 2010 election season).
Vendors, such as DDS, Harris, MediaBank, OneDomain, Strata and WideOrbit, continue to enhance various ePort interfaces. For smaller advertisers and agencies without buy systems, local broadcast TV business can be processed through ePort Connect, a special web-based service of ePort.
TVB ePort, funded by local television broadcasters, is free to customers.
