Fox Broadcasting adopts agentic architectures for digitally delivered linear TV ads

The move to digitally delivered linear TV signals a critical infrastructure upgrade for traditional broadcasters fighting to retain ad spend. By adopting agentic architectures and APIs, networks like Fox Broadcasting are removing the friction that previously made linear buying less attractive than programmatic digital channels. This shift allows the industry to treat massive linear reach with the same precision as connected TV, effectively merging two historically siloed budgets. As automation scales, the ecosystem will likely see a rapid migration of performance-oriented capital into traditional broadcast slots. Watch for whether other major broadcasters adopt similar agentic frameworks to standardize automated transactions across the upfront and scatter markets.

Fox Broadcasting is not alone in moving toward automated, digitally delivered linear TV transactions. In 2025, ITN and Magnite launched a programmatic solution for local linear TV in the U.S., with multiple Fox television stations among the first to successfully test programmatic transactions of ITN-supplied inventory. Tom Fleming, senior vice president of sales at Fox Television Stations, described the platform as giving clients a streamlined, digital-like buying experience that helps the station group compete more effectively. ITN's local linear SSP, which launched in late 2024, translates ad supply from more than 1,100 stations across 75 broadcast ownership groups into biddable impressions and connects to Magnite's SpringServe ad server, enabling real-time bidding and VAST workflows for live local linear alongside streaming and online video buys.

The business case for programmatic linear is gaining institutional backing on both sides of the Atlantic. A coalition including The Trade Desk, Google, OpenX, PubMatic, Equativ, Cadent, Magnite, and Adform published a roadmap for programmatic TV across five European markets, proposing a cross-industry steering group, shared interoperability principles, and a certification programme for premium programmatic partners. In the U.S., Digiday reported that programmatic has firmly become part of the upfront market, with agencies noting a significant swing in 2025 as networks and streaming services became more willing to let programmatic spend count toward upfront commitments. The tension between buyer preference for private marketplace deals and seller preference for programmatic guaranteed deals remains a key negotiation point in these transactions.

Demand-side data underscores why broadcasters like Sinclair and Fox executives target local TV programmatic advertising growth are investing in agentic and API-driven architectures. The IAB's 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend and Strategy report found that buyers now expect 47% of their CTV inventory to be biddable, a 13-percentage-point increase from 2024, and that 85% of CTV buys are now purchased programmatically, up from 75% the prior year. The report also noted that national broadcast and cable TV is considered a must-buy by 39% of buyers, while audience-addressable TV and local broadcast each sit at 33%. The IAB Tech Lab is simultaneously building its Live Event Ad Playbook (LEAP) with programmatic stakeholders, developing protocol enhancements for scalable buying and selling of live-streamed events, a category where linear broadcast still dominates reach and where DDL 2.0 architectures could reduce the manual friction that has historically kept performance budgets out of those slots.