In a move that could finally bridge the gap between digital and broadcast advertising, ITN and Magnite have launched the industry’s first Local Linear TV Private Marketplace—a platform designed to bring digital-like automation and precision to local TV ad buying.
The partnership pairs ITN’s automated activation technology with Magnite’s ClearLine platform, allowing buyers to discover, package, and activate local linear TV inventory programmatically for the first time. The result: advertisers can now buy live local TV the same way they buy streaming video or digital inventory—through self-service tools, automated bidding, and real-time analytics dashboards.
Closing the Programmatic Gap
For years, advertisers have been promised a unified way to activate campaigns across digital and broadcast. This new marketplace aims to make that vision real. Buyers can now manage everything from geo-targeting and daypart selection to affiliate and genre targeting directly through ClearLine’s interface.
Stations, meanwhile, retain full control of their inventory—a critical factor in an industry wary of losing local autonomy to digital intermediaries.
Digital Workflows Meet Broadcast Scale
Magnite’s integration of local broadcast into ClearLine effectively puts linear and digital video under one roof. Advertisers can activate both simultaneously using real-time bidding (RTB) and VAST workflows, aligning local broadcast with the automation standards of digital media.
The feature suite extends beyond automation. Bid multiplier forecasting now allows impression-based planning to translate across linear TV—a long-standing challenge for marketers seeking unified campaign metrics.
Industry Impact and Reactions
“This launch delivers the ease, visibility, and automation that will define the future of linear TV,” said Todd Watson, CEO of ITN. “The difference now is that activating it is just as simple as buying digital.”
Magnite’s Matt McLeggon, SVP of Advanced Solutions, framed the collaboration as a leap toward holistic video activation: “It brings programmatic buyers closer to local linear TV inventory and simplifies the management of their total video investments.”
Advertisers are already taking notice. Dentsu’s Jennifer Hungerbuhler, Chief Publisher Direct Officer, called the initiative “a long time in the making,” adding that it “has the potential to revolutionize local TV workflows and unlock its inherent value.”
The Bigger Picture
The launch arrives as the media industry races toward converged TV—where traditional and streaming platforms are planned, bought, and measured seamlessly. Competitors like The Trade Desk and FreeWheel have made inroads into connected TV, but Magnite and ITN’s offering could carve out a unique niche by focusing on local broadcast, a segment long underserved by automation tools.
Future updates promise even more advanced capabilities: direct-to-station access, spot TV automation, political ad tools, and enhanced audience targeting. These upgrades could solidify local linear’s relevance in a world where precision and speed increasingly define media value.
For now, Magnite and ITN’s collaboration marks a major milestone—the moment local broadcast TV officially steps into the programmatic era.
