Local linear television is gaining a more digital-style buying workflow as Magnite and ITN expand their partnership to bring agentic capabilities to local TV advertising. The companies plan to connect ITN’s seller agent with Magnite’s Orchestration layer, allowing advertisers to move from media planning and forecasting to campaign activation faster while combining local linear and connected TV (CTV) buying.
For decades, local television advertising has offered advertisers something digital platforms struggle to replicate at scale: highly localized reach. The trade-off has been operational complexity. Buying local linear inventory can involve fragmented supply, manual requests, insertion orders and lengthy coordination between buyers and broadcasters.
Magnite and ITN are attempting to remove some of that friction by applying agentic advertising technology to local linear TV.
The companies announced an expanded partnership on September 10, with the full integration planned for Q4 2026. The centerpiece is ITN’s newly launched seller agent, which will connect to Magnite Orchestration, the company’s workflow layer for coordinating advertising transactions.
The technology is designed to automate portions of the process that traditionally require human intervention. Agents can generate impression-based forecasts and media plans, allowing advertising teams to review and approve campaigns before execution moves through Magnite’s ClearLine infrastructure.
The significance goes beyond simply making local television buying faster. It potentially gives local linear inventory a workflow closer to the one digital buyers have come to expect from programmatic advertising.
ITN’s proprietary NXTv infrastructure provides the local-TV transaction layer, while Magnite brings its sell-side advertising infrastructure and broader supply ecosystem. The companies say the combination is intended to increase demand for local linear inventory while making it easier for traditional television buyers and digital-first advertisers to access the medium.
The partnership also reflects a broader shift toward AI-assisted media buying. Gartner said in August 2026 that more than 70% of global advertising spend could flow through self-serve platforms where AI materially influences media buying, costs and outcomes by 2028.
Magnite is taking the concept beyond local linear inventory. Its buyer agent can allow advertisers to submit a single RFP and budget covering both local linear TV and CTV, forecast omnichannel reach, book campaigns and receive consolidated reporting.
That could become particularly important as media teams attempt to manage television as a unified channel rather than separating broadcast and streaming into disconnected buying processes.
For agencies, the potential benefit is operational efficiency. For broadcasters, the argument is equally important: programmatic access can create additional demand for inventory that has historically depended on manual sales processes.
The competitive landscape is moving in the same direction. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other major technology platforms are embedding AI deeper into campaign planning, optimization and execution, while advertising infrastructure providers are increasingly positioning AI agents as interfaces between marketers and complex media systems.
The harder question will be control. Automated agents need reliable inventory data, audience definitions, forecasting models, transaction rules and measurement infrastructure. Advertisers will also need visibility into how agents make allocation and optimization decisions.
That matters because Gartner has found that 45% of marketing technology leaders using or piloting AI agents said existing vendor-provided agents were not meeting expectations for business performance, highlighting the gap between AI demonstrations and production-grade enterprise systems.
Magnite and ITN’s approach therefore represents less a replacement for media buyers than an attempt to automate the operational layer surrounding them. Human teams still review and approve plans, while agents handle much of the repetitive work between planning and execution.
If the integration performs as intended, local linear TV could become easier to incorporate into omnichannel campaigns without forcing advertisers to abandon the reach and geographic targeting advantages of broadcast television.
Market Landscape
The timing reflects a television advertising market increasingly divided between traditional linear inventory and rapidly growing digital video channels. In the U.S., core local TV advertising spending is projected at approximately $13.5 billion in 2026, excluding political advertising, according to Statista. That represents a decline from $13.9 billion in 2025.
The challenge for broadcasters is therefore not simply maintaining inventory value, but making that inventory easier for modern media-buying systems to access.
Magnite and ITN are effectively targeting this infrastructure gap. Rather than turning linear television into CTV, the partnership attempts to make linear TV transact more like modern digital media.
That distinction matters. CTV already benefits from programmatic buying, automated optimization and audience-based planning. Bringing similar workflows to local linear could make it easier for advertisers to allocate budgets across the two environments.
For enterprise advertisers, agencies and media owners, the eventual test will be whether agentic workflows deliver accurate forecasting, transparent execution and measurable incremental efficiency—not simply faster transactions.
Top Insights
- Magnite and ITN are integrating agentic AI with local linear TV, shortening media planning and activation workflows for advertisers and agencies.
- ITN’s NXTv and Magnite ClearLine infrastructure connect local television inventory with programmatic-style execution and automated campaign workflows.
- Magnite’s buyer agent can combine local linear and CTV buying, giving advertisers a unified approach to television planning, reach and reporting.
- Local broadcasters could gain new digital-first demand as programmatic access removes operational barriers that have historically limited linear TV transactions.
- Enterprise adoption will depend on agent accuracy, transparency and measurement, not simply the speed at which AI agents can execute media plans.
Get in touch with our Adtech experts.
