Part Twelve: Trafficking or, Vice Amply Rewarded

Note: This post, this website in general, does not represent the views of anyone but myself. Although this warning is moreso for the website in general. I can't imagine anyone taking offense with this post. But hey, it takes all kinds!

While I know the juicy LOOKAT DEM DERE COMPANIES makest thy silliest of comedies of erratae are the more entertaining posts, this website does at least attempt to try and be educational. So today we're going to delve into the dry world of ad sales, scheduling, and trafficking. I'll twist some controversy at the end from which you folks can draw your own conclusions for funsies though. AMPLY REWARDED indeed!

So in 2020 when you flip on a linear service be it cable, satellite, fiber optic, or live streaming, you are essentially watching a very complicated WinAmp iTunes Spotify style playlist. How complicated? Well this would be an overly simplified master control setup for a truly live broadcast:

Thanks Grass Valley!

But for today we'll stick to prerecorded television because not only is it (marginally) simpler but it also makes up a majority of linear television. Everything you see on television can be broken down into four main arenas, which can range from using one to five pieces of software: 

• Scheduling Contract Software
• Advertising Contract Software
• Trafficking Software
• Automation Scripting
• Playout Software
• Dynamic Graphic Software and Storage
• Metadata Software and Storage
• Content Storage
• Rendering/Transcoding Software

In a television network, the General Manager will direct his Programming department to research, select, acquire, and produce content for the network. This content, after finalized and ready for broadcast, is often an .mxf video file and is sent to the playout server. But the information about that content - such as the contract airdates / airtimes restrictions, its TV rating, cast information, genre, and other metadata information - is input into a Scheduling Software database. From there using the contract parameters, the contents' broadcast date and times are scheduled by the Programming / Scheduling team within the Scheduling Software, filling up every minute of a 24 hour day. This schedule is then passed onto Trafficking.

But like everything else in life, all television really begins in the sales department. Account Executives meet, call, and form relationships with individual companies and advertising agencies who purchase spots that go into timeframes (usually Dayparts but not always) that are filled with slots called avails (usually during commercial breaks but not always). The Account Executives will use a piece of software that records the details of these deals, including the what time of day these spots will go into. The airtime windows and any additional placement information (e.g. must appear first in the break!) of the purchased spots then gets passed onto Trafficking.

The Trafficking software / department is (one of two places) where everything comes together. Scheduled content (Films and Series) are given formats that contain that aforementioned content, commercial breaks, and secondary events (mostly graphics). Commercial breaks are filled with the sold advertising spots, which only then have their specific content aka 'copy' applied. A few important network promotions (essentially advertising for the network itself) are placed. Whatever slots remain unfilled get 'filler': bonus spots to loyal advertisers, more promotions, and PSAs. Lastly, anything that is not audio or video is dealt with. Information regarding the broadcast such as V-Chip ratings or Closed Captioning is confirmed to exist and function in the format. Whatever advertisers that bought graphics have those graphics placed to air over the scheduled content and have their own copy applied. Promotional graphics are placed and, if necessary, have their copy applied. Lastly, with every 1/30th of second - a frame - of the 24 hour day filled in, the WinAmp iTunes Spotify style playlist is run through an automation script within the Trafficking software. The end result is a text file (often an XML but sometimes a TXT or PHP) that get uploaded to the Master Control department a few hours before broadcast.

The Master Control department imports the text file into its playout software. That software consults its database then searches its content server, its graphics server, and its metadata server to make sure all the assets are there and ready for broadcast. (The chart above is an example of a Live linear broadcast from Master Control.) In some advanced cases, the trafficking or production departments can access the content or graphics in a "live log" environment to make changes to prerecorded content on the fly. This is done if changes need to be made anywhere up to a few minutes before broadcast. As the playlist, well, plays it goes through the content media, graphics, and metadata servers, pulling the files from their hard drives to memory. These three (or more) servers play simultaneously and have their content multiplexed aka muxilated aka muxed aka a fancy phrase meaning "mixed and rendered" on the fly to a transport stream aka a .TS file BEHOLD MY MSPAINT:

The "Receiving Satellite Dish" in this example would be a cable operator like Comcast, Spectrum, or Cox.

The footnote to the whole process is the As-Run. A log of what actually got broadcast (including weather, mechanical, or human-error disruption) gets sent back to the Trafficking or Sales department. They in turn reconcile the broadcast playlist with the as-run and see if any commercials didn't get aired. If a disruption did occur, the account executive can negotiate an appropriate discount on the next order or provide extra spots free of charge aka a 'makegood'.

Remember above where I said these four processes could range anywhere between one to five distinct pieces of software? There are two major schools of thought / lines of business in executing the operational side of linear networks.

One of these two options is a legacy system: disparate pieces of database software whose central programming code was written in the 1980s and whose UI / UX feels in line with that. Networks who choose this option will try and select the best sales, scheduling, trafficking, graphic, and playout applications and then attempt to reconcile each unique application's unique file formats using translator software (like traffic's automation script). Even if the same company produces or distributes multiple applications, often translation and reconciliation is required because quite often these 5 in 1 software packages are assembled from acquired or merged companies. While sometimes cumbersome, these legacy systems have decades of input from television networks about their individual needs and therefore come equipped with a magnanimous bounty of features and a deep range of manual flexibility (especially if a user is familiar with computer programming).

But in the mid to late 2010s, with the explosion of cloud computing, a new type of mindset concerning television's operational software evolved. Why not have a single piece of software store the content contracts, ad sales information, the content itself, the metadata, while also playing out the content simultaneously? The cloud aspect with redundant backups removes the fear of putting all the eggs in one basket while spread out the processing load across an entire virtual network. Pare down "unnecessary" features, add in a slick UI, get some VC cash, and DISRUPT THE SYSTEM, BAY-BEE. While these systems certainly feel like the future of network operations, they still are in their nascent forms. In a massive oversimplification, their UX feels and operates more like a Silicon Valley mobile app than a Hollywood master control, lacking some of the difficult but useful manipulation offered by the more experienced legacy systems.

One of the biggest favors the newer, cloud-based systems have to offer is their ability to integrate more departments into their all-in-one system. For example, most of these systems are include Nielsen or comScore ratings, tied directly into your As-Runs. This allows the General Manager and the Programming team to make more informed content decisions immediately.

Why... it may be that long until a single piece of machine learning software scans for available major, minor, and independent studios' content and using previous ratings data it selects, purchases, acquires, schedules the content all on its own, while doing the same for advertisers (selects, sells, acquires, schedules - Wide Orbit's software system Programmatic is essentially already this), while also directing production departments exactly which content needs promotions and when.

Not if. When!
Fun times, folks! And now more fun times!

• Where did all the flowers go aka the Vikings go legit!
• Proms!
• Anime and eSports! (Two different posts!)
• And more... selected by a computer! (j/k for NOW)