RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA – Advertisers demanding lowest-cost CPMs while publishers reduce yield creates a destructive cycle that undermines premium content production and ultimately eliminates quality advertising environments that benefit no one.
“That race to the bottom isn’t a good thing for this entire ecosystem,” Erika Loberg, global head of CTV at OpenX, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA. “Asking for the lowest CPM and reducing yield on the publisher side isn’t going to help anyone because then you’re going to see this influx or this change in availability of premium content.”
The dynamic threatens content quality that keeps consumers engaged while eliminating the advertising placements brands seek, requiring all parties to “play nice in the sandbox” by understanding value rather than pursuing unsustainable pricing.
Bridging buyer-seller divide
Connected TV’s fundamental disconnect stems from conflicting categorizations: publishers view it through legacy linear frameworks enabling direct sales, while buyers approach it as digital inventory suited for programmatic trading with iOS-style targeting.
“The fundamental disconnect between buyers and sellers on how CTV should be bought and sold really lies in how we’re categorizing it in these different ways,” Loberg said. “Those challenges and those differences are how do we meet in the middle and give the benefit of both sides.”
The solution requires transaction methods that satisfy both publisher comfort levels and buyer operational preferences.
Signal sharing requires trust
Publishers remain skeptical about sharing CTV signals given data value and privacy regulations, while buyers expect comprehensive access, creating tension that direct partnerships can address through trusted intermediaries.
“Signals in CTV, if you get outside of the data conversation, is a really important piece of data. So there’s a lot of skepticism from the publisher side to just open that up and share, not to mention the privacy regulations,” Loberg said.
OpenX positions itself to help publishers open signal access in privacy-compliant, transparent ways while ensuring buyers understand what they’re purchasing in the bid environment.
Quality as baseline standard
Quality should represent baseline standards rather than premium tiers, requiring buyers to understand inventory characteristics and willingly pay appropriate rates for what they receive.
“Quality doesn’t necessarily need to be this publisher here, but you have to understand what it is and be willing to pay for what that is,” Loberg said.
Quality indicators include removing supply chain hops to create direct publisher paths, transparency about device type, publisher identity, content details, and necessary targeting signals that enable comfortable programmatic transactions without fear of fraud or waste.
Value vs. efficiency balance
Publishers seeking revenue predictability and premium pricing while buyers pursue audience optimization and flexibility creates natural tension requiring mutual accountability and realistic expectations.
“There’s not a situation where you’re going to get that quality, that premium, everything you want for the cheapest CPMs,” Loberg said. “The buyer who knows exactly what they’re getting and has equated that to being a valuable impression is okay paying the price for that.”
When transparency decreases and buyers become uncertain about inventory quality, budget constraints tighten as advertisers protect spending without clear value assessment capabilities.
Content creation economics
High-quality content production costs require adequate publisher yield to maintain competitive platforms that retain consumer attention, benefiting advertisers seeking engaged audiences.
“Content creation is very expensive right now. As a consumer, I want really good content that I can keep watching and binging and staying within that platform, that’s expensive,” Loberg said. “For publishers to be able to stay competitive, they need to be able to have the yield that allows them to drive that business.”
“As a consumer, I don’t have anything I want to watch anymore because it all went away,” Loberg said. “That is really us all just kind of playing nice in the sandbox to understand where that value is and how we can transact that and uphold that across the board with things like transparency, which gives you insight into where those fees are going, where your money’s actually going.”
