Zachary E. Sparkman

Manager, Yield & Inventory | RSNs & National Multi-Market

• Own end-to-end yield strategy, pricing architecture, and inventory management for Lakers & Dodgers RSNs plus LA and Dallas Interconnects across streaming, CTV, and linear platforms, representing $190MM in combined annual revenue and managing a team with two direct reports in LA and Dallas markets
• Define rate card frameworks, dynamic floor pricing, and yield optimization rules across FreeWheel and Wide Orbit, partnering with Ad Ops, Engineering, and national sales leadership (Home Team Sports, Playfly, Optimum Sports) to set KPIs (fill rate, sell-through, eCPM, makegood liability) and prioritize inventory initiatives across programmatic CTV and linear scheduling
• Built and shipped the Live Sports CTV Package Builder, a full-stack internal product (HTML/JS, SharePoint REST API, embedded PPTX generation) used by 50+ sales reps to configure streaming ad packages across 10+ sports properties, automating CPM calculations, rate class toggling, and branded deck generation that previously required manual assembly
• Manage FCC political broadcasting compliance across $34MM+ in on-cycle political revenue, including LUR thresholds, equal access obligations, and inventory allocation across federal and state election windows; domain expertise directly informed development of PoliticalWindow.com (see Product Portfolio)

Pricing and Planning Manager | Regional Sports Networks

• Operated as deal desk for Sales, reviewing and approving proposals against rate card, clearing inventory in coordination with Ad Ops, and serving as the primary pricing and planning interface between Sales and Operations across the Regional Sports Networks portfolio (Spectrum SportsNet and SportsNet LA)
• Designed and shipped a multi-property analytics and inventory tracking platform for Spectrum SportsNet (Lakers) and Spectrum SportsNet LA (Dodgers). Built on a 10-view product framework over a 21-query Power Query data pipeline that consolidates booked spots, schedules, and inventory into a unified decision-support layer used daily by yield, sales, and revenue assurance teams to manage allocation across $57MM in annual ad revenue
• Architected pricing and inventory segmentation strategy for live sports streaming and CTV ad pods in partnership with Sales, Ad Ops, and Product teams, delivering +74% CPM growth in premium live in-game inventory while pioneering addressable and programmatic activation across connected devices
• Built bottom-up RSN revenue planning model that replaced flat top-down budget targets with a unit-economics framework, deriving revenue capacity from game count, inventory volume per game, impression delivery, ratings, and monetized CPM; informs annual budget and forecast cycles for Spectrum SportsNet (Lakers) and Spectrum SportsNet LA (Dodgers)

Senior Account Manager | Agencies

• Identified revenue gap in Fox NFL ad packaging, redesigned the DMA-level pricing and inventory bundling strategy, and launched a revised advertising package that delivered +78% growth in average order value, a product-driven pricing initiative later adopted across the station group
• Managed a 100+ account portfolio spanning national brands (Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Subway, McDonald’s) and agency relationships with Initiative, OMD, Carat, and Litha/Media Access Group, developing integrated cross-platform proposals across digital, OTT, and linear inventory
• Built pricing strategy frameworks for premium sports and local programming inventory, establishing rate card structures and sell-through optimization practices that informed early programmatic and CTV monetization strategies

Digital Account Executive | New Business Development

• Launched the station group’s first digital advertising division from the ground up. Defined go-to-market strategy, built pricing models, and established sales operations across 3 DMAs, functioning as a 0-to-1 product owner for a new revenue line
• Generated $200K+ in new digital revenue within 6 months by pioneering video pre-roll and display ad monetization on station O&O properties alongside SEM, SEO, and social media services
• Partnered with linear sales teams across 5 broadcast stations to develop integrated cross-platform advertising solutions, bridging $7MM in traditional spot business with emerging digital inventory, an early cross-platform monetization model

Political Window|PoliticalWindow.com

Political advertising intelligence platform • Solo founder & developer

• Designed and built a full-stack web application that parses FCC public file PDFs into structured data, enabling political media buyers to identify Lowest Unit Rate violations, track candidate ad spending, and navigate FCC compliance windows across all 210 U.S. DMAs
• Architecture: Neon PostgreSQL → Express/Node.js API (Railway) → JavaScript frontend (GitHub Pages) with Claude Sonnet-powered PDF extraction pipeline, JWT/bcrypt authentication, and FEC + FollowTheMoney API integrations
• Features include a 50-state interactive election map with FCC window countdowns, an FCC rate explorer, LUR violation detection engine (the platform’s core strategic differentiator), and a multi-source candidate ad spend tracker

Live Sports CTV Package Platform|Internal Tool • Spectrum Reach

Sales enablement product for streaming ad packages • Sole developer

• Built a single-file web application that calculates streaming ad packages for sales reps based on live sports event, DMA, budget, and rate class inputs, then auto-generates branded PowerPoint decks via embedded PPTX templates and SharePoint REST API sync
• Eliminated manual package assembly workflow for 50+ reps across 10+ sports properties, reducing proposal turnaround from hours to minutes while enforcing pricing accuracy and brand consistency