Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Pulling The Strings
Disney-owned TV channels went dark on Charter Spectrum last week when the two companies failed to reach an agreement on a new carriage pact, Variety reports. The blackout affected over 25 networks, including ESPN.
It was particularly bad timing, too: Channels cut out during a highly anticipated tennis match at the US Open, which ESPN was broadcasting, without the preemptive warnings typical of network blackouts – leading to social media flak for Spectrum.
Spectrum, of course, points the finger at Disney for insisting on a significant increase to its carriage rate.
“We are fighting hard to hold the line on programming rates imposed on us by companies like Disney,” Spectrum said in a statement. The programming distributor also called Disney’s decision to remove their networks from Spectrum’s program lineup “excessive.”
The bickering reveals a deeper power imbalance that’s accelerating cord-cutting. Networks with streaming services are charging distributors more to carry their linear networks so they can afford to operate their streaming businesses. Then, when pay TV becomes more expensive as a result, more consumers cut the cord, blaming distributors for the rising costs of cable.
What’s a distributor to do?
Be All, End All
Industry watchers worry The Trade Desk (TTD) is transforming into a Google clone, Insider reports.
Google’s ad platform has elements that resemble both demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs). TTD, meanwhile, has an established foothold as the largest independent DSP. But recent moves like the launch of its OpenPath direct-to-publisher buying solution and its plans to undercut SSP price floors seem aimed at growing its sell-side presence.
That’s contributing to fears of another giant end-to-end platform gobbling up both ad supply and demand while pushing out smaller competitors.
TTD says it isn’t competing with SSPs. But SSPs have cause for concern, especially when it comes to OpenPath cutting them out of the supply chain. “If you get any honest person from an SSP in a room, they’ll tell you, ‘Yeah, they’re coming after us through OpenPath,’” U of Digital’s Shiv Gupta tells Insider.
TTD positions itself as the anti-Google, which it considers its chief rival. But to take on Google effectively, TTD is clearly emulating the walled gardens it says are ruining the open internet.
Still, if you’re worried about TTD becoming Google, fret not: Its CEO, Jeff Green, claims it’s actually trying to be more like Apple and Meta.
Pay To Play
Meta is noodling on paid Facebook and Instagram subscriptions that give EU users access to ad-free app experiences, The New York Times reports.
Meta’s business model has long revolved around advertising. But the regulatory tide is turning in Europe. EU laws like the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) are putting Meta’s privacy policies under a magnifying glass and forcing the company to change.
The DSA, which went into effect Aug. 25, requires social media and app stores to crack down on harmful content and misinformation. Since the law’s passage, TikTok and Instagram have let users opt out of personalized social feeds, and Meta and Snap have stopped targeting EU teens with personalized ads.
Meanwhile, the DMA, which aims to increase competition between Big Tech incumbents and their smaller rivals, forbids large companies from favoring their own services or sharing data across their platforms. Meta’s combining data across Facebook, Marketplace, Instagram and WhatsApp would be verboten, for instance.
Rolling out a paid tier may appease not only regulators but also users who for years have longed to change the terms of the social media contract. At least if they live in the EU.
But Wait, There’s More!
Why media mogul Barry Diller says legacy TV studios should cut Netflix and other streaming services out of the strike negotiations. [CNBC]
Microsoft to unbundle Teams in Europe over EU antitrust concerns. [Financial Times]
Did YouTube solve its rabbit hole problem? [Platformer]
Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer leaves the company two months after CFO James Kehoe’s exit. [Ad Age]
Done well, brick-and-mortar retailers have staying power that the internet can’t displace. [The Atlantic]
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