On Neutral Ground

Why Content Licensing Needs Independent Settlement And Verifiable Payments

We've been here before. The content licensing economy is starting to look a lot like programmatic advertising circa 2010.

Standards are forming in one lane. Marketplaces are racing ahead in another. Bilateral deals are getting struck under pressure by publishers who are just trying to stay afloat. Intermediaries are moving fast to own the middle.

Nobody is designing the architecture. Nobody owns the vision.

Unfortunately, we know how this movie ends. Fifty cents of every programmatic ad dollar never reaches a publisher. Not because anyone planned it that way. Because nobody planned at all.

The difference this time around is that we've lived through the consequences. Publishers know what happens when they let somebody else design the ecosystem. They know what they get when principals abdicate and intermediaries fill the vacuum. Hindsight is 20/20 unless you're deliberately closing your eyes.

In this AdExchanger editorial, I make the case for what's missing.