TrafficONE – Break Balancing

We have now added a unique function for networks. Spot breaks no longer must have locked-in/must-fill segments of specific lengths.

Stations using syndicated formats are accustomed to having to fill the local breaks with a pre-set amount of content. If the network formats local breaks of two minutes, the affiliate stations always have to have two minutes local content. If they’ve sold only 90 seconds for a particular break, they have to fill with a :30 PSA or maybe a bonus spot for a good customer.

Now, when Music 1 is providing the network’s music scheduling and when the affiliate stations are using TrafficONE to schedule their local advertising, the need for non-productive fillers is eliminated. We call it Break Balancing; whereby each station in a network will fill a break to match the length the same break has on the station with the highest volume of spots. That way each break during simulcast sections of programming will be of the same length but filling will be done based on the demand of the busiest station. Each local spot break fluctuates with the spot-load of the Master station. Here’s how it works:

1. The company owns three stations, the daily Music 1 music schedule is broadcast by all three.

2. Each station uses TrafficONE, one of them is designated as the Master station, this will be the one that consistently has the fullest advertising schedules, the heaviest spot loads.

3. When TrafficONE at stations #2 and #3 begin scheduling their local ad orders, they first query the Master to determine how long the spot breaks are. So for example, if the 6:10 break is 90 seconds at the Master, then the corresponding 6:10 break in stations #2 and #3 will be filled with 90 seconds. If the 6:40 break on the Master station is 3:30, then TrafficONE will require the concurrent breaks in #2 and #3 to equal that content.

Splits

Commercial break “splits” are when one programming stream is being delivered to two transmitters and each transmitter has its own daily advertising schedule. I haven’t seen many instances of this in the States, but it is becoming quite common now in the UK and Scandinavia where Music 1 / TrafficONE is doing a rather interesting thing named “break balancing”.

TrafficONE has the ability to ‘balance’ the content length of the commercial breaks on two or more transmitters so they will not necessarily have to always be a set-time. Everyone is familiar with satellite network commercial breaks. Most often, they are two minutes in length and the affiliate stations have to fill to the full 2:00 lest they rejoin the network to silence or into the middle of an in-progress network commercial. With break balancing, one station is set to be the ‘master’ and the commercial breaks it runs are matched in length on the others.

Example: A Pop station in Liverpool has two transmitters. Transmitter A covers the north side of the metro, Transmitter B has the south side. The station formats three two-minute commercial breaks an hour, each set for a maximum of two minutes content.

If any spot break on Transmitter A is not sold-out, the TrafficONE that schedules Transmitter B will adjust to match that Transmitter A content. So, if the 2:10pm break on Trans/A has just ninety seconds sold, then TrafficONE at Trans/B will allow only ninety seconds of spots into its 2:10pm break. Both transmitters flip back to music and entertainment at exactly the same time, with the spot breaks on the ‘slave’ station(s) always matching the commercial content of the ‘master’ station.

If you’d like to know more about this exotic function, talk with Steve or Neil at the M1 offices.