LAS VEGAS — TIP Initiative (Television Interface Practices), a consortium of local television broadcasters including Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, TEGNA, Tribune Media and Hearst Television, on Monday confirmed the release of an updated framework for standards-based transaction interfaces, highlighting the progress the work group has made toward its goal of accelerating electronic advertising transactions for local TV broadcasters and their media agency partners.
Streamlining the advertising buying and selling process and making standardized, modern transaction interfaces available are keys to enabling future growth and innovation in the local broadcast television industry. To solve this industry-wide challenge and accelerate system interoperability, executives from the largest U.S. broadcast TV groups collaborated and in late 2017 launched the TIP Initiative. TIP’s mission is to create a coalition of system providers to work with buyers and sellers to develop and implement the technical framework and standards necessary to streamline transaction workflows for local broadcast television through standards-based open APIs.
“Members of the TIP Initiative share a strong commitment to accelerating the next phase of growth and innovation for the local broadcast television industry,” said Nexstar founder and President/CEO Perry Sook. “Embracing technology and developing new innovative frameworks that eliminate the complexity of the buying and selling process is critical to strengthening local broadcast television’s long-term competitive position. While there is more work to be done, we are energized by the alignment of agencies and broadcasters toward our common goal of creating a more efficient marketplace for local television advertising transactions.”
In Q1 2018, TIP engaged over 20 systems providers, media agencies and broadcasters to collaborate on the development of an open standards-based framework for the system-to-system interchange of transactional information.
TVB, the trade association representing local broadcast television, continues to serve as a repository for TIP’s work and provides open access for industry partners.
“The TIP Initiative is excited to release our updated framework, which we’ve made available to all vendors, media agencies and broadcasters for their input,” said Sinclair President/CEO Chris Ripley. “Establishing an efficient and nimble market is necessary for our industry to evolve toward an ATSC 3.0 future and preference will be given to system vendors that deliver this capability for us. As we continue to refine the framework and engage vendors to design and test interfaces, it is important for buyers and sellers to require open interface standards.”
TIP Initiative participants shared their vision for automation and the challenges to getting there at the 2018 NAB Show panel, “How the Local TV Ecosystem is Streamlining the Transaction Workflow,” today (4/10) at 10:40 a.m. Pacific.
More information about the TIP Initiative is available at www.tvb.org/TIP.
