Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Osetek: Intermediaries Take 50% to 70% of Programmatic Ad Dollars

Alan Osetek · 973 How Digilent is Competing in Changing Programmatic Ad Landscape, $40m in Volume over TTM · Mar 24, 2018 · at 4:51

Alan Osetek, CEO of Digilant, explains to Nathan Latka why the programmatic ad ecosystem faces criticism over opaque pricing structures and non-disclosed fees.

0:00 / 0:28exact quote · 29.0s

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“So, you know, across the, what I call across the Luma scape, when you go from the brand all the way to the other end of the spectrum, the publisher, there's DSPs, SSPs, there's like six intermediaries involved, and they're all taking a cut where a couple of different consulting firms have, you know, have done studies on this to show that somewhere between You know, 50 to 70% of the working media dollars are going towards commissions for all these people in the Lumiscape, as opposed to going towards working media to reach consumers.”

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The claim, plainly

Studies by consulting firms show that between 50% and 70% of working programmatic media dollars are absorbed by intermediary commissions across the ad tech supply chain rather than reaching consumers.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

Prior to March 2018, multiple industry audits and consulting reports (including studies from PwC/IAB, the World Federation of Advertisers, and Ebiquity/ANA) found that ad tech intermediaries absorbed between 50% and 70% of programmatic ad spend. Specifically, the WFA reported in 2014 and 2016 that intermediary layers extracted ~60% of spend, PwC found intermediaries took ~55% in 2015, and an investigation by The Guardian in 2016 showed intermediary take rates reaching up to 70%.

World Federation of Advertisers (2014, 2016) reports showed publishers received roughly 40% of gross programmatic spend, with intermediaries capturing the remaining ~60%.
PwC and IAB's July 2015 study found that ad tech intermediaries accounted for approximately 55% of total programmatic gross revenues.
Guardian News & Media's October 2016 supply chain investigation revealed that up to 70% of advertiser spend was absorbed by programmatic intermediaries in worst-case paths.
ANA and Ebiquity's 2017 study found total programmatic supply- and demand-side intermediary fees consumed between 42% and over 50% of ad spend.

Checked against

[1] substack.com [2] communicateonline.me [3] adnews.com.au [4] swa-asa.ch [5] swa-asa.ch [6] swa-asa.ch [7] adnews.com.au [8] adnews.com.au

"Guardian" programmatic "intermediaries" "cents on the dollar" OR "pence" 2016 "WFA" "Guide to Programmatic Media" "2014" OR "2015" "intermediary" OR "take rate" OR "cents" OR "publisher" OR "percent" WFA programmatic ad tech supply chain tech tax publisher gets 40 50 percent 2014 2015 2016 "WFA" "Compendium of ad fraud" "40%" "working media" 2016 "IAB" "PwC" programmatic "ad tech" 55% 2015 OR 2014 OR 2016 programmatic ad tech supply chain fees intermediary 50 70 percent ANA WFA PwC prior to 2018 programmatic ad spend ad tech tax intermediary 50 60 70 percent report 2014 2015 2016 2017 ANA programmatic supply chain intermediary fees publisher receives cents on dollar 2016 2017 "Association of National Advertisers" "K2" OR "supply chain" "programmatic" "50%" OR "60%" OR "70%" 2016 OR 2017

assessed as of 2026-09-02

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Mentioned

Digilant DSPs LUMAscape SSPs

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More from Alan Osetek

Assertion Supported

Osetek: Roughly 90% of New US Digital Ad Dollars Go to Google and Facebook

“So a lot of studies, at least in the U S have shown that something like 90% of the new digital dollar dollars going into digital have been going to Facebook and Google.”

Alan Osetek Mar 24, 2018 ▶ 7:54 973 How Digilent is Competing in Changing Programmatic Ad Landscape, $40m in Volume over TTM

Disclosure

Digilant Processes $40M to $50M in Annual Global Media Volume

“Yeah, we're, we'll, we'll, you know, we're a privately owned company, but let's just say it's in the, you know, 40 to fifty million dollar range globally.”

Alan Osetek Mar 24, 2018 ▶ 7:28 973 How Digilent is Competing in Changing Programmatic Ad Landscape, $40m in Volume over TTM

Osetek: Intermediaries Take 50% to 70% of Programmatic Ad Dollars

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