Harris Corporation’s Broadcast Communications Division announced that R-Time Sales & Marketing, the airtime sales subsidiary of RTL Klub in Hungary, has purchased the Harris Landmark II airtime sales system, marking the first implementation of the system in Central Europe.
R-Time and RTL Klub are associated with RTL Group, the Luxembourg-based media group which operates 34 television and 30 radio stations in 11 countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Portugal and Croatia. RTL Group also is a global content provider, owning production and rights companies in more than 40 counties
The Landmark(TM) II system from Harris is a highly advanced and established software solution for the management and execution of complex airtime campaigns that enables R-Time to take advantage of station average pricing (SAP), the cost-per-thousand method of trading commercial airtime most commonly used in the UK. Landmark II will deliver precise, efficient, advertising campaign delivery against ratings data, thus offering R-Time clients a much improved vehicle for reaching their target audiences. R-Time clients include RTL Klub, Cool TV, Cartoon Network, Film+, Sport1 and Sport2, A+, Hálózat TV and, most recently, The Discovery Channel.
Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and our television advertising market has grown rapidly in recent years, said R-Time Managing Director Steve Varcoe. As a result, our airtime sales market has become far more complex and sophisticated, and will become even more so with the impending rollout of digital cable and IPTV services. The optimisation functionality of Landmark II will give us an unchallenged competitive edge going forward.
Landmark II provides multi-channel operators, networks and regional sales houses with the ability to maximise the efficiency of all advertising revenue-generating opportunities including spot, sponsorship and interactive. It was developed in conjunction with some of the worlds largest airtime sales organisations, and currently processes transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The contract for Landmark II with R-Time includes software licensing, support, facilities management, plus development and implementation. Implementation is already underway and completion is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this calendar year.
Harris Vice President of Software Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa John Phipps said, The selection of Landmark(TM) II by R-Time is a tremendous vote of confidence in the flexible, robust nature of this industry-leading software system.