LAS VEGAS – Media companies have more ways to reach audiences than ever before as broadband connectivity expands among screens of all sizes. These numerous channels – including free, ad-supported television (FAST) platforms – multiply the amount of viewership data.
“With these FAST channels, there’s so many different platforms that have different ways of attaining data, so reporting is a big challenge for us,” Christina Chung, vice president of business operations at Spanish-language programmer Estrella Media, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Tameka Kee at the NAB Show. “
“Without that data, which is a lot of times behind walled gardens, it’s very hard for us to have the best experience for our consumers,” Chung said. “When all of these platforms are having their own disparate pieces of data, reporting tools, email reports, it’s really difficult for us to be able to compile that and make the best decisions when it comes to content creation.”
As for advertising sales, the company in April introduced Estrella Media Advertising Solutions (EMAS) to also represent beIN Sports and Hemisphere Media. The portfolio of media properties reaches 21.5 million people in the United States.
“This is something that evolved on the linear side, but we’re bringing it across all of our video, display and audio businesses,” Chung said. “That unification is very helpful for our direct sales team.”
Estrella Media also is expanding its automated sales capabilities for advertisers that are shifting budgets into programmatic platforms. These kinds of media buys can help to better monetize commercial breaks, or pods, instead of inserting a house ad or slate.
“Programmatic is something that we are working very hard with our different ad servers, with our different demand partners to bridge,” Chung said. “Because at the end of the day, when we have direct sales, which is a very, very great portion of what we do, programmatic is what’s going to help us make sure that our entire pod is filled.”
