Triton-RCS Integration Brings Programmatic Buying To Radio.

Triton Digital and RCS are looking to move programmatic radio advertising beyond the largest broadcast groups by replacing the hardware traditionally used to insert programmatic commercials with a direct software connection to stations’ playout systems.

The companies are integrating Triton’s programmatic platform with RCS’s Zetta automation software, allowing stations to choose which over-the-air commercial slots they want to make available to programmatic buyers.

“This is such an easy opportunity for broadcasters to monetize their inventory in a completely seamless way,” RCS CEO/President Susan Larkin says in an interview. “We’re connecting the dots and enabling the technology so that stations just make decisions on what inventory they want to be available.”

Once a station designates that inventory, the process is automated. As an available commercial slot approaches, Zetta sends a request to Triton, which supplies the advertiser’s commercial for insertion into the broadcast. After the spot airs, Zetta confirms its delivery, and Triton reports the completed play to the advertiser’s buying platform. The software connection effectively replaces the dedicated Jelli hardware Triton has used to handle programmatic ad insertion at radio stations.

“We no longer have to rely on a network of thousands of hardware boxes sitting at radio stations to do the ad insertion,” Triton President/CEO John Rosso explains. “We can now do that in software with a connection between Triton and the RCS playout systems at those stations.”

The technology is already in operation. Rosso says the connection between Zetta and Triton was initially developed to support iHeartMedia’s programmatic broadcast initiative. RCS is now leveraging the integration so it can be offered to other broadcasters that use both companies’ platforms.

The move could prove especially significant for small and midsize radio companies that do not have the resources or scale to build their own programmatic advertising infrastructure.

“This gives everybody that opportunity to participate,” says Larkin. With thousands of stations in 120 countries rely on RCS technology, she says and the large number of shared Triton and RCS customers should make it easier to expand the programmatic service without requiring stations to overhaul their existing operations.

Triton will initially offer the inventory through programmatic-guaranteed transactions, in which the price is negotiated in advance, rather than through open real-time bidding. That gives stations more control over pricing as they begin making broadcast inventory available through digital buying systems. It also allows advertisers to purchase radio using workflows they already use for streaming audio and podcasts.

Reaching Digital Budgets

The new software solution removes the technical barriers, but it doesn’t ensure advertisers will buy the inventory.

“Putting linear over-the-air radio inventory into that marketplace doesn’t automatically guarantee you that it will get purchased,” Ross says. “We still need to generate demand.”

That task falls to Katz Radio Group, which will lead the U.S. sales effort. Its role is to attract advertisers and represent the broadcast inventory available through the system.

The pitch to broadcasters is that the integration could put their over-the-air inventory in front of advertisers whose spending increasingly moves through automated digital platforms. Rosso estimates that most digital advertising is now transacted programmatically and says radio needs to be available where buyers are allocating their budgets.

“All of the growth in advertising is being expressed programmatically,” he says. “It’s an imperative for us to get broadcast radio inventory into that stream of commerce and make it available in the place where buyers are buying today.”

For advertisers, Triton is positioning broadcast radio as a way to add reach that cannot necessarily be achieved through ad-supported digital audio alone.

“You can’t really fully scale an audio campaign just in digital,” Rosso says, pointing to the smaller reach of ad-supported streaming services compared with their total user bases. “You can’t scale an audio campaign purely in digital.”

The companies say the integration is rolling out to additional broadcast partners. Triton is already talking with most of the major radio groups and will prioritize broadcasters that are customers of both Triton and RCS.