Overcoming Program Listings Challenges
Posted on February 14th, 2018 by metro_admin
As your programming and channels proliferate, here’s how to maintain consistent, clear program listings and channel lineups across your footprint.
Broadcasters are facing many different challenges this year around program scheduling and communicating what they are putting to air. Programming is their lifeblood, of course, and communicating “what’s on” in an accurate and timely manner is essential to internal operations, driving viewership, and fully monetizing that content.
For broadcasters, accurate program listings are essential. Traditionally, the challenge has been an internal one: how to efficiently and accurately track what is going to air and communicating that to Traffic, to Sales, to ratings agencies, and elsewhere inside the station or group. But it is now also a significant market challenge, too. As 2018 gets underway, this challenge is getting exponentially more complex as the amount of programming and the number of channels proliferate: the rapid expansion of diginets and over-the-top streaming services, together with the upcoming rollout of ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV.
Today, the FCC’s PSIP requirements under ATSC 1.0 remain in place for U.S. broadcasters, and the need to publish accurate program listings on broadcasters’ web sites and mobile platforms persists.
But soon things will get even more complex, as ATSC 3.0 services debut. How will stations maintain accurate program listings for existing ATSC 1.0 customers via PSIP, introduce listings for ATSC 3.0 customers, publish accurate listings on their digital platforms, provide ratings agencies with matched titling, and ensure that their sales departments have the listings information they need to monetize all of this? And how will this workflow be managed efficiently?
TitanTV’s solution to this challenge is called MediaStar. It is the only complete program listings management suite offered in the marketplace today. Backed by TitanTV’s 25 years of industry experience and investment, this powerful suite of tools has evolved to enable our clients to bring accurate, timely, and synchronized program listings to all the places they need to be. The software as offered as an internet service (SaaS) and is available in various configurations to meet your specific needs.
To increase workflow efficiency further, we are busy building bridges with vendors of other systems, such as traffic, sales, and ratings, to push synchronized program listings into your other third-party systems. Please check our integrations page to see the current list of official partnerships, but others are in the works.
We hope your 2018 is off to a great start. We will be at the NAB Show in April and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your specific needs, so please contact us soon to ensure an appointment.
Christopher W. Kelly
Chief Executive Officer
TitanTV, Inc.
