As the eBay Media Marketplace prepares to go live Thursday, it’s apparently not too late to soothe over cable networks who feel they’ve been kept in the dark about the online media auction. In response to strong criticism from cable networks last week that they haven’t been fully briefed on the eBay Media Marketplace, the auction site’s committee has agreed to set up a meeting with the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau to better explain how the system will work, AdAge and Mediaweek have reported. The rancor stemmed from promises made by Howard Rosenberg, the director of the eBay Media Marketplace, during a Feb. 28th presentation at the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ media conference in Las Vegas. Rosenberg told the audience that media buyers had already tested the system, and that “a few” cable networks would begin beta testing it the week of March 5th. That led one cable exec in the audience to complain after the session that no one from the cable side had seen a final version of the system, or been able to test it.
Last Wednesday, Chuck Thompson, CAB’s SVP for sales and marketing, said that other sales executives from several top cable networks had met the previous day and were concerned that they hadn’t seen the system. A day after his comments made their way through the ad industry trade press, cable networks began receiving e-mails with the web address of the test system. Also, eBay Media Marketplace committee member David Grubb, global media director for Microsoft, publicly acknowledged the committee’s failure to keep cable networks in the loop. Meanwhile, Thompson contacted Bill Cella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft’s media agency Magna Global, to facilitate the meeting. A date for the meeting has not been reported.
Related:
—Ebay Readies Online Ad Marketplace For March Launch