After working since 3/15/07 to attract advertisers, and inventory from cable networks and radio stations to its online media exchange, eBay decided to shut down the service this week. On 4/5/07, The Cable Television Advertising Bureau announced members won’t participate in further trials of eBay’s system. That, along with difficulties communicating to agencies this was not an auction system but an exchange platform, was enough to have them throw in the towel.
“We appreciated the opportunity to test the system – throughout our review it became apparent that the Media Exchange was too narrow an application, had clear connectivity issues related to cable’s emerging end-to-end e-business platforms and lacked the provisions necessary for capturing critical strategic and idea-driven intelligence during a buy,” Sean Cunningham CAB CEO, said. “Additionally, the refusal by major members of the agency community to consider this interface reinforced our conclusion that ending our participation was the correct decision for our members and their advertising clients.”
10 advertisers had come together to create and test the system, including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Toyota and Microsoft. Oxygen was the only cable net that had broken CAB ranks to test the system.
