Fox Stations Launching Programmatic Ad Sales

The Fox Stations group is entering into programmatic ad sales, offering buyers access to premium broadcast inventory through WideOrbit’s WO Programmatic platform.

The move makes Fox the largest station group in the country to commit to programmatic ad sales, the group said. The group’s 28 stations in 17 markets reach 37% of U.S. homes, Fox said.

Under the agreement with WideOrbit, Fox stations will be able to offer station-controlled inventory on an open marketplace. The group also will offer select buyers automated transactions and direct response buyers the ability to place orders programmatically, Fox said.

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“Based on our tests over the last year, we are convinced that programmatic advertising will be a complementary additional sales channel for our stations,” said Jim Burke, the group’s president of sales. “Opening a programmatic sales channel is a clear win for everyone involved in the media buying process and we’re proud to be the first network owned-and-operated group to offer it to our buying partners.”

WideOrbit’s programmatic TV footprint is the largest coverage of any programmatic TV platform with inventory from more than 750 stations that reach more than 93% of U.S. households and 270 million people, according to Fox. 

(Photo via GotCredit's Flickr. Image taken on May 3, 2016 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 16x9 aspect ratio.)