TVB ePort, the electronic bridge that enables eBusiness transactions between stations, agencies and rep firms, has passed the $100-million mark in order volume, it was announced yesterday at the TVB Forecast Conference in New York.
“This is an important milestone on the way to our goal of developing local broadcast television’s equivalent of the interstate highway system,” said TVB Executive Vice President Abby Auerbach, who is overseeing the ePort initiative. “We want every buyer in the country to connect electronically with every television station and/or rep firm and make our medium the easiest to buy.”
Auerbach said that ePort volume growth is increasing each week at a 17% rate.
Most of the $100 million in business has been sent through ePort by agencies using Strata’s Eleven product, the first buy system to become compliant with ePort’s open standards. Additional vendors, such as Mediaplex and MediaBank, are expected to connect with ePort shortly. The non-Strata business was handled through ePort Connect, a special web-based service of ePort that is designed for smaller agencies without buy systems.
