Brad Smith on National vs. Local Advertising [VIDEO]

The following is part of TV[R]EV’s “Eyes On Local” video series. Interested in learning more? See our new “Local OTT: What You Need to Know” special report.

National television gets an enormous percent of advertising budgets, yet as our own Alan Wolk has pointed out, "it's all local." That's something former Videa SVP of Ops + Finance Brad Smith agrees with, and explains further in the video below.

"I actually disagree with the idea that all media is national. My perspective is all media and all consumption of media ultimately becomes local and it is local. And that whether or not you're watching CNN or reading a national newspaper or watching evening news, CBS or NBC or 'Whoever Evening News,' you're digesting that content and you're taking it in and you're looking at: How does it affect my area? How does it affect me locally, regionally, statewide, whatever."

Flipping that paradigm on its side, Smith thinks that while national media and national spending has really grown over the last 25-30 years, the real need is in the local marketplaces, particularly with the adverse effects that digital and the internet has had on newspapers in terms of creating, curating and providing content.

For the local television stations, who are trying to get past the broadcast signal and starting to reach their viewers across, or reaching their viewers, across multiple different platforms, there's a pressing need for ad support -- and that's not necessarily coming from national brands.