Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Two Become One
Viant may buy MediaMath, knitting together the pair of well-known DSPs, Digiday reports.
MediaMath is an OG player that sprang up back in 2007 and was once valued at $1 billion. But it’s been on the market for a long time, starting its search for a home in 2020. Since then, its troubles have often been in the spotlight.
Notably, in 2022, Founder and CEO Joe Zawadzki left the company, causing it to refinance. Eventually, MediaMath sold a controlling stake to a private equity firm, wiping out much of the valuation held by its co-founders and employees.
But Viant’s not been looking so hot either. Its stock price has fallen far from its 2021 zenith, much like the stock prices of other public ad tech companies.
DSPs like The Trade Desk have pulled far ahead of both Viant and MediaMath with a focus on servicing agencies rather than brands. Meanwhile, SSPs like Magnite are pushing into DSP territory. Like Aesop’s bundle of sticks, Viant and MediaMath may find they can survive if they band together, pooling their investments into SPO, CTV, identity, sustainability and custom bidding – all of ad tech’s greatest hits.
Ads In The Amazon
Streaming services are flocking to advertising in droves.
Even Amazon is considering an ad-supported version of Prime Video, WSJ reports.
Prime Video titles don’t have ad breaks today, but the platform isn’t devoid of ads. Amazon works with brands on product placement and has also been moving more titles from Freevee, its free ad-supported TV channel, onto Prime.
To make sure enough subscribers actually watch Prime Video with ads, Amazon might upsell the ad-free offering by implementing ads for existing Prime subscribers and charging more for plans without ads. Disney did something similar when it launched Disney+ with ads while at the same time raising the price of Disney+ without ads.
Amazon is also in talks with Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery about making the ad-supported versions of their streaming services available on Prime Video to bring in more ad revenue.
Although ad-supported Prime Video is still just an idea, it’s an idea that makes sense.
Amazon knows how to make an ads business work. Its ad revenue is up 21% year-over-year.
Bait And Twitch
Twitch unveiled new branded content guidelines for its video streaming platform earlier this week. The guidelines prompted immediate pushback from streamers and esports organizations who say they are too restrictive, PC Gamer reports.
Under the new rules, Twitch would prohibit streamers from inserting, embedding or “burning in” prerecorded advertisements. That would limit how streamers work directly with brands to sell ad placements. Instead, streamers would have to use Twitch’s advertising tools, which means Twitch gets a cut of revenue.
Streamers would still be able to feature products in the background of their videos and record sponsored unboxing videos. Sponsored overlays are still allowed, but their size would be limited to 3% of the screen.
The new guidelines would particularly affect esports organizations like Evo that typically devote a third of their on-screen real estate to burned-in ads during their coverage of live esports events. Some organizations, like OTK Media, threatened to leave the platform entirely if the new guidelines go into effect.
In response to the outrage, Twitch apologized, claimed it’s not seeking to limit how creators work directly with advertisers and promised to rewrite the guidelines “to be clearer.”
The platform did not commit to actually changing the new rules, however.
But Wait, There’s More!
CNN ousts CEO Chris Licht, who eliminated CNN+ during his brief tenure. [CNBC]
Instagram is a hotbed of underage sex content, which its algorithms curate for pedophiles. [WSJ]
Some subreddits are temporarily shutting down in protest of Reddit’s policy to increase pricing for its API. [Bloomberg]
A Wall Street firm sends a blistering letter to Amazon. [Insider]
You’re Hired!
Fan platform Fandom adds two people to its C-suite: Peter Mansour as chief product officer and Jeremy Steinberg as CRO. [release]
Digital marketing services group Kepler names Mallory Simmonds as president of EMEA. [release]
