TVB believes that electronic business processes (eBiz) will enable buyers and sellers to transact business faster, easier and more accurately, resulting in more time for professional buying and selling. eBiz is much more than Electronic Invoicing. All Local Broadcast Television trading partners (stations, reps, agencies) should use an electronic process to place orders, handle makegoods and make revisions in addition to processing invoices. Under TVB's leadership, the local broadcast television trading partners (agencies, reps and stations) have come together to make eBiz a reality.

What Is eBusiness?

eBusiness is the transfer of data from one computer to another. When computers connect, trading partners can conduct business transactions electronically. eBusiness, particularly over the Internet, is becoming steadily more popular and secure.

Negotiating and buying television time is a detailed and complex process. In its simplest form, a typical broadcast purchase is conducted among three trading partners: agency buyer, sales rep, and station. Once the process has moved from the dynamic negotiation stage to the order and stewardship stage, the trading partners can be burdened with painstaking, repetitive actions.

The traditional spot television transaction goes like this:

1. When the buyer places an order with a sales rep, the order is typed.
2. The rep sends the order to the station; the order is re-keyed and faxed.
3. The station receives, reviews, and enters the order into its traffic system; the order is re-keyed.
4. The rep sends a confirming contract to the agency; the order is re-keyed.
5. The schedule airs and the station invoices the agency. A separate invoice is generated for each month of the broadcast schedule. The invoice is printed and mailed to the agency.
6. The agency receives the invoice and prepares for payment by sorting, coding, and inputting affidavits. A record of each spot aired (day, date, time, and commercial code) is re-keyed from the invoice into a matching system.
7. The buyer reviews the aired schedule and approves the invoice for payment.

In this basic life cycle of a spot TV buy, a single order (not including revisions and missed spots) is keyed five times. It is hardly a surprise that most agencies find 70 to 80 percent of all spot TV invoices discrepant. The inevitable result of the industry's manual way of doing business – besides the high error rate – is inefficiency for all trading partners.

Consider this eBusiness scenario:

1. The buyer creates an order, which is transferred instantly into the rep's system
2. The rep sends the order instantly to the station.
3. The station accepts the order into the traffic system.
4. The rep confirms the order electronically, eliminating the need for a contract.
5. The station invoices the agency in an electronic interchange.
6. The agency reconciles the invoice and transfers it into the payment system.

Processing spot TV buys electronically, rather than manually, promises a more efficient procedure for all trading partners. TVB has created Open Standards for each of the core local broadcast transactions (e.g. Order, Revision, Makegood, Invoice) so that all buy and sell systems will be able to send/receive data in the same way. In addition to airtime, the Open Standard transactions provides for non-airtime, websites, digital sub-channels and multiplatform buying.

What are the Benefits of eBusiness?

Just Imagine...

• No orders to print and fax.
• No contracts to check and file.
• Instant, accurate makegood input.
• No invoices to print, mail and input.
• Virtually no discrepancies.
• Historical buys at your fingertips.
• More time for negotiation.
• A process for multiplatform buying/selling.

How do I learn more and get involved in eBusiness?

You are in the right place. The TVB eBiz Toolbox contains all the info you need:

• TVB ePort to learn about the open platform that TVB built to move standard transactions between trading partners.
• Becoming Compliant for a list of participating stations/agencies and the vendors that provide eBiz services.