Rob Weisbord

Stations expect to reap $5-plus billion from political spending on linear and CTV platforms next year.

Agencies want broadcasters to run what they pay for and feel that should no longer be challenging in 2023, executives from Sinclair, Magna, Icon International and Locality said during a TVNewsCheck webinar last week.

Executives from Sinclair, Magna, Locality and ICON International will explore the many ways to potentially streamline local television ad buying and selling and which methods are furthest along the track in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on July 27. Register here.

New platforms from Matrix, Operative and WideOrbit aim to make local broadcast competitive with digital. Note: This story, originally published for TVNewsCheck Premium members only, is now available to everyone thanks to a sponsorship by Revenue Analytics.

Sinclair Broadcast Group is rolling out new technology to squeeze more dollars out of its advertising inventory across the company. Sinclair isn’t just selling local broadcast commercials, says COO Rob Weisbord. There are 80 different ad products available among digital, streaming, national and local. In a soft advertising market, making sure all that inventory is easy for account executives to package and that it’s priced to maximize revenue is more important than ever.

Progress is being made implementing automation technology for multiplatform buying, but challenges with measurement remain. L-r: Rob Weisbord, Sinclair Broadcast Group; Tracy Chavez, Publicis; moderator Paige Albiniak; and Media Monitors’ Philippe Generali. (Alyssa Wesley photo)

For Rob Weisbord, COO and president of broadcast of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the company’s hydra-like assets across linear TV, cable, streaming and digital work in concert by design for ad sales and, shortly down the road, programming. “We have to be prepared to be able to get the entire universe of people consuming audio and video,” he says.

Weisbord, who has been the company’s president of broadcast and chief advertising revenue officer since 2020, will continue to report to Chris Ripley, president and chief executive officer.

Executives from NBCUniversal Local (Frank Comerford, above), Tegna, Sinclair and Hearst told a TVNewsCheck webinar they’re bedeviled by persistent gaps in the available buying/selling pipeline, which have bogged down the transaction process and added to their expenses. Those woes are leading some broadcasters to bring more of their automated functions in house.

Executives from Tegna, Sinclair, NBCU stations and Hearst will evaluate the industry’s progress towards automating key elements of the spot TV buying and selling process in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on May 19. Register here.

Rob Weisbord becomes president of local news and marketing services division on Jan. 1, while Steven Marks, EVP and chief operating officer of Sinclair’s TV Group will retire at year’s end.

Developers of the software or platforms that make automated spot sales possible will be demanding a small percentage of the business they handle, possibly up to 1.5%. With broadcasters’ ringing up several billion in national spot sales each year, the automation fees could quickly run into tens of millions of dollars.