Flexible assignment of media advertising orders to broadcast inventory

Abstract

An automated planning system obtains media advertising order specifications associated with media placement orders, wherein the media advertising order specifications include flexibility attributes associated with media items referenced in the media placement orders. The planning system generates an orders table including order information associated with individual orders, an inventory table including inventory information associated with individual inventory items, and an association table including association scores indicating levels of association between the individual inventory items and the individual orders, wherein the association scores are based on the flexibility attributes. The media placement orders are booked into a plan lineup based, at least in part, on the association scores.