TVB ePort Fact Sheet (PDF)
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| Seller FAQs TVB ePort Fact Sheet (PDF) |
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| About TVB ePort | |
What is TVB ePort? TVB ePort is an open electronic platform to which any trading partner (buyer, station, rep) can send Open Standard transactions (e.g. Order, Makegood) and from which any trading partner can receive Open Standard transactions. |
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How will TVB ePort benefit the Local Broadcast Television industry?
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What electronic processes will TVB ePort support?
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| Will TVB ePort support multiplatform transactions? Yes. TVB ePort will be written to TVB's Standard Schema, which support the capability to include information about non-airtime charges (including interactive) as well as the broadcast components. |
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When will TVB ePort be available? |
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Do I have to be a TVB Member to sign up for TVB ePort? TVB ePort will be free to advertiser and agency customers. |
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What does it cost to participate in TVB ePort? TVB ePort will be free to advertiser and agency customers. |
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| How do I register as a TVB ePort user? Registration for TVB ePort will be available in late October, 2007. Click here for registration information. |
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| Is ePort going to replace the connection I currently have with my rep firm? No. ePort is designed to enable the movement of electronic documents between buyer and seller, not between station and rep. | |
| Is ePort going to be used for National biz with rep firms and direct local business? Yes. ePort will enable all Spot TV business regardless of whether it is sold by the National reps or Local AEs. |
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| How do I know if my company/station has signed up for ePort? Click here to view a list of committed stations. |
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| What is the role of the ePort Administrator? A station (or rep) administrator is responsible for maintaining the set of users who will have access to ePort for their station. This means that if someone leaves or joins the station they can add or delete a user. In addition, they can indicate whether each user has other people that can access their documents (read, read/write and receive email notifications). Finally, the station administrator is able to set some profile options, such as the length of time documents are retained in ePort and how long they stay visible in the “completed” tab, before getting filed. |
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| How long will orders be archived in the system? The default is 3 months after the end of the flight, long enough for invoices to be reconciled. However, users can adjust the archive period to meet their auditing needs and save orders indefinitely. |
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| Can stations accept partial orders? Not yet. Our first release of ePort will allow the acceptance or rejection of full orders. Partial confirmations are on our list for future development. |
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| Can customers without buy systems use ePort? How? Absolutely! ePort offers a user screen so buyers can key in their orders and order revisions and send them to stations. Buyers are able to access their makegoods and monitor their transactions in ePort as well. |
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| Will TVB mine and re-purpose the data that goes through ePort? No. The ePort platform will be moving whole documents (think of a fax machine sending an order), not individual buy data. TVB will not have access to the specific data and will not be monitoring, collecting or re-purposing any data that passes through ePort. |
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| Does ePort change the order approval process at the station? No. Think of ePort as a fax replacement in that it will deliver an electronic order to your sales system. From there your internal checks and balances remain intact. |
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| Is ePort designed for use by local, direct accounts? Yes. Local, direct accounts will benefit tremendously from ePort because it will stream line all their paperwork and provide an easy-to-access audit trail. As a result, local AEs will have a process advantage vs. local radio, newspapers and cable and more time for negotiation. |
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| Can you provide materials to help us educate our buyers about ePort? Yes. There is a PPT presentation and PDF on the ePort website called “Talking with your Customer about ePort.” |
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| About open standards and XML | |
What are open standards (Schema)? Computers need to speak the same language and use common terms to pass information between them. Standards ensure that all computer systems are developed using the same terms allowing them all to communicate without translations. Standards need to be open/neutral – not proprietary – to ensure that all sized trading partners are capable of participating in electronic communications and to foster competitive technology. |
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| How are open standards different from TVB ePort? TVB’s goal in creating Open Standards is to encourage all computer system vendors (traffic systems on the sell side and stewardship systems on the buy side) to develop eBusiness functionality. ePort will provide the connectivity for trading partners whose systems have not yet been upgraded to communicate electronically using the Open Standards. |
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| What is XML and what is an XML schema? XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a programming language designed to facilitate the sharing of data across different systems. An XML schema is a file that describes a specific document format. |
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| Buy/Sell vendor systems | |
What buy/sell systems are compliant with TVB ePort? TVB ePort has met with enthusiastic support from buy/sell system vendors, most of whom have announced that they will update their services to support the TVB XML schema. A list of system vendors and their respective anticipated dates of compliance will be published as the information becomes available. In the meantime, we recommend that you call your buy/sell system vendor and encourage their compliance with TVB’s XML schema. Click here for "Talking with Your Traffic System about ePort." (pdf) |
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| How will ePort enable Spot TV buyers to send orders electronically? Most of the agency stewardship system vendors have indicated that they will be modifying their systems to allow buyers to send orders to ePort. For smaller agencies that do not use a stewardship system, it is possible for buyers to enter orders and order revisions directly into ePort that then delivers those orders and revisions electronically to sellers. Spot TV buyers should check with their system vendor to see if/when they can send orders to ePort from their system. |
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What if my system vendor already provides electronic invoicing? |
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| Will TVB keep us updated on vendor progress or should we communicate directly with them? Please contact your system provider and ask when they will be compliant with ePort. As vendors complete their development work and release their ePort capabilities we plan to post their progress on the ePort website. |
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| AAAA Registry | |
What is the AAAA Registry? The AAAA Registry will be the “electronic address book” for the advertising industry. It will be used by computer systems to determine whether a trading partner’s system is capable of receiving a specific XML message and, if so, how it should be delivered. Further information is available at the registry website (www.ebizformedia.com). |
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How does my station/rep get listed in the AAAA registry? |
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| Contacting TVB ePort | |
How do I contact TVB ePort? Email: info@tvb-eport.net Mail to: TVB ePort, 3 East 54th Street, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10022 Telephone: 212-486-1111 Fax: 212-935-5631 |
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