Sinclair unifies ad sales with Operative Media

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021
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Sinclair Broadcast Group Partners with Operative Media’s AOS to Reinvent How Media is Transacted

NEW YORK — Today, Sinclair Broadcast Group (“Sinclair”) (Nasdaq: SBGI) and Operative Media announced they have entered into a multi-year enterprise partnership agreement, which aims to transform the way local and national media is transacted across all digital and linear platforms throughout the industry. With this partnership, Sinclair will become the first local television broadcaster to consolidate all sellable assets across its platforms and markets into a single ad sales system, creating a unified brand experience for customers and sellers.

To realize this partnership, Sinclair will utilize Operative’s next generation advertising sales management technology platform, AOS, to facilitate the movement of all of its inventory types (linear and digital) to a common impression-based currency. This new model provides tremendous upside for marketers in an environment where viewership fragmentation has made it difficult and time consuming to not only identify audiences at scale, but also to buy and execute against them.

Operative’s AOS platform automates workflows across planning, order management, inventory management, stewardship and billing, driving efficiency into the way Sinclair works internally across its portfolio and externally with its customers. These significant operational efficiencies are coupled with improved capabilities needed to integrate with a multitude of partners and technology companies, to provide the foundation that enables marketplaces and will support Sinclair’s current products, such as Compulse 360 and ZypTV.

“We already provide a unique opportunity for marketers to engage consumers of all kinds, and Operative’s technology will further consolidate and simplify our sales process,” said Rob Weisbord, President of Broadcast & Chief Advertising Revenue Officer of Sinclair. “It will bring this concept to our markets in a way that is easily managed by our various sellers and the portfolios of inventory they represent. It will provide them flexibility to dynamically manage audience and spend allocations across Sinclair’s broad asset catalog.”

The partnership also provides automated integrations with key buying systems that shorten the time it takes to develop plans, deliver reports and invoices to customers, and also significantly reduce discrepancies between buyers and sellers by passing all data electronically between the buy and sell systems. Finally, the introduction of yield tools helps deliver improved outcomes for both Sinclair and their customers by optimizing inventory utilization, delivery and make goods.

“This is an opportunity to align our proven track record in the broadcast industry with Operative’s technological expertise, to create a simple solution that we believe will change the way advertisers connect with consumers across all devices,” said Brian Bark, CIO of Sinclair. “This new platform will empower advertisers with the ability to optimize campaigns across Sinclair’s distinguished portfolio of content, while altering the way the industry does business — paving the way for other media companies in the process.”

“AOS is the perfect solution to simplify and optimize every aspect of the buying and selling process across Sinclair’s extensive brands,” said Lorne Brown, CEO of Operative. “This exciting partnership will help Sinclair improve business outcomes for themselves and their customers. It is a very exciting step forward for the local market.”

Links: Sinclair; Operative Media