Three of Australia's largest publishers will press ahead with a premium private ad exchange despite Yahoo!7 shelving plans to join the proposed gang of four.
The private exchange is an attempt to create a market premium advertising market, pooling the inventory of Fairfax, Mi9, News Corp Australia and Yahoo!7.
The plan emerged in March and was then reportedly weeks away from launch. It remains weeks away, with September now mooted for launch. What is clear is that Yahoo!7 will not initially be part of the exchange.
Yahoo!7, while agreeing with the principle of the proposition, was sceptical that the exchange would provide better returns than it could achieve individually. However, should results prove otherwise, the company would likely rejoin the group. It is understood Yahoo!7 dropped out some time ago.
The launch of the network has been delayed because of laborious legal work between several large commercial competitors and integrating a complex technology stack into four separate platforms.
With one less party involved for launch, that process may now accelerate, albeit marginally. There is also talk of trying to bring other premium publishers such as The Guardian to the party, once it is up and running. It is understood former Fairfax digital boss Pippa Leary is running the exchange.
Some media agency executives have raised concerns about the network. Others have raised the spectre of price fixing and the ACCC. But those behind the exchange accept there is always a risk of complaint. It is understood that the individual parties will have no visibility of prices set by the others and are therefore confident that regulators will not view it as a competition issue.
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