3 Ways Leading Broadcasters are Fighting Margin Erosion

 

Margins don’t vanish overnight—they slowly erode. And even when the top line looks strong, revenue leaders know the truth: the cost of doing business is rising, advertiser demands are intensifying, and hitting the same profit numbers is getting harder.

This pressure isn’t unique to one group—it’s an industry-wide shift. As audience attention fragments and more ad dollars move to digital platforms, local broadcasters face a familiar challenge with new urgency:

How do we protect margins and stay competitive in market erosion?

Some of the industry’s largest and most respected broadcast companies have already laid the groundwork—deploying platforms to automate sales operations, centralize cross-platform selling, and even use AI to streamline content creation. Now, the next step is clear: empowering their people with the same level of intelligence and automation.

Here are three ways they’re doing it—and why AI-powered tools like TopLine are becoming essential for the next phase of growth.

1. Get the “Yes” Faster by Taking Busywork Off the Table

Broadcasters have made smart moves to streamline the back-end of their sales process. By automating orders and campaign execution, some groups report faster, cleaner operations that free reps from paperwork and let them focus on closing deals. Others have gone further with unified sales platforms that allow sellers to build proposals that include TV, OTT, and digital in one place. 

These tools streamline execution, but they don’t solve preparation—the research, customization, and pitch-building that happens before a proposal is ever logged.

According to recent industry research, sales teams using AI-based proposal tools report up to 30% shorter sales cycles and 25% higher close rates.

That’s where TopLine adds exponential value. It uses AI to generate client-specific briefs, vertical insights, and ready-to-use proposals in 48 hours or less. Sellers spend less time preparing and more time presenting—moving faster and smarter through the sales cycle.

2. Help Reps Find New Clients (and New Ad Budgets)

While linear revenue softens, digital growth continues, and broadcasters are finding creative ways to expand their reach.

Many offer targeted OTT campaigns via platforms like Premion, giving advertisers the data, precision, and reporting they expect from digital. Others have rolled out AI-generated video ad tools, helping local businesses produce commercials in minutes, unlocking a flood of new advertisers who previously couldn’t afford TV creative.

These tools have been incredibly effective at scaling reach and creative capacity. But they don’t always help sellers understand who to pitch next, or what new categories to pursue.

That’s where TopLine fills the gap. By analyzing business trends, industry data, and local market dynamics, it helps sellers surface new prospects and build smarter outreach strategies—so they’re not just selling more, they’re selling more strategically, guided by data-backed insights.

3. Turn Every Seller into a Strategic Partner

Broadcasters have invested in training, tools, and cross-platform sales strategies. But even with all that infrastructure in place, reps are still often left to craft pitches on their own.

That leads to inconsistency, wasted time, and lost deals, especially when sellers juggle multiple platforms and advertiser types.

TopLine solves that by giving every rep on-demand access to sales intelligence, including vertical trends, business challenges, and recommended campaign strategies. Instead of just selling inventory, they walk into meetings offering real solutions, customized to each client.

And when every proposal is strategic, professional, and fast? That’s when advertisers start seeing you not as a media vendor, but as a marketing partner.

It also pays off. A TopLine TV client reported a 30x average ROI within the first full month of use.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve already modernized your tech stack, you’ve laid the foundation. You’ve automated the operations. You’ve expanded into OTT. You’ve got the systems.

Now it’s time to unlock their full value—by empowering your people.

TopLine doesn’t replace what you’ve built. It makes your entire sales strategy work harder, smarter, and faster.

Because in a market where margins are shrinking and advertisers expect more, sales intelligence isn’t just nice to have—it’s what’s next. It’s why companies like Sinclair have rolled out AI-powered sales enablement across all stations. If your tech stack is in place, now is the time to activate it.

Ready to see TopLine in action?