The Media Spend Skim

Recorded: March 20, 2026, 9 a.m.

Original

Summarized

The Media Spend Skim | AdExchanger

image/svg+xml:

Topics
Latest
Marketers
Agencies
Publishers
Technology
Platforms
Identity
Measurement
Data Privacy
Artificial Intelligence
CTV
Commerce
AdExplainer
Exclusive Report
Daily News Roundup

Opinion
All Columns
Data-Driven Thinking
On TV & Video
The Sell Sider
Content Studio
Comic
Contributor Guidelines

About Us
Advertise
Newsletter
AdExchanger Advisory Board
About Us
Contact Us

Events
Programmatic AI Las Vegas
AdExchanger Awards
Webinars
All Events
Network Events

Podcasts
AdExchanger Talks
The Big Story
Inside the Stack

NEW! Programmatic AI 2026

Become an AdHero

Topics
Latest
Marketers
Agencies
Publishers
Technology
Platforms
Identity
Measurement
Data Privacy
Artificial Intelligence
CTV
Commerce
AdExplainer
Exclusive Report
Daily News Roundup

Opinion
All Columns
Data-Driven Thinking
On TV & Video
The Sell Sider
Content Studio
Comic
Contributor Guidelines

Events & Awards
Programmatic AI Las Vegas
AdExchanger Awards
Webinars
All Events
Network Events

Podcasts
AdExchanger Talks
The Big Story
Inside the Stack

Subscribe Free
Sign Up

About Us
Advertise
Newsletter
AdExchanger Advisory Board
About Us
Contact Us

CONNECT

Home The Big Story The Media Spend Skim

PODCAST: The Big Story
The Media Spend Skim By Sarah Sluis

Friday, March 20th, 2026 – 12:30 am
SHARE:

Agencies increasingly make money through principal-based buying, a practice that is now spilling into the ad tech world.
In recent weeks, The Trade Desk and agencies have been tussling over fee structures, and WPP Media and Dentsu exited OpenPath.
This week, Publicis stopped recommending The Trade Desk to clients, which it claimed was because it found TTD was charging hidden fees beyond what was in its contract – a story eerily reminiscent of the one Sarah Caputo told a couple of weeks ago as our guest on the Big Story. Hired to analyze a smaller agency’s contract with The Trade Desk, she discovered fees of which the agency wasn’t aware.
What does it mean if companies must charge opaque fees in addition to the upfront fees charge? And if there are only so many fees to charge, is that why ad tech companies and agencies are tussling over who gets the take?
Prompted by this story, as well as WPP Media’s lawsuit with an employee who said he was fired after raising concerns about rebates, AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher discusses how agencies are rebranding principal-based buying, hiding it in earnings reports with names like “non-product-related income” and “purchase risk media deals.” Instead of disappearing, the practice is morphing – and history suggests it will transform, not go away, under scrutiny.

The rise of sell-side agents
Then, we discuss the nascent trend of publishers and ad tech companies using AI to optimize their internal processes. For example, some are building sell-side agents so AI can help them respond to RFPs, identify pockets of high-value inventory and match inventory with a client’s bespoke needs.
AdExchanger News Editor Andrew Byrd, who spoke to publishers and an ad tech company about their early tests to build sell-side agents, walks us through the problems they are trying to solve and how it’s going so far.

Tagged in:

Agencies

//
fees

//
podcast

//
principal-based buying

//
sell-side agents

//
trade desk

Next In The Big Story

The Year CTV Goes Full Funnel

Related Stories

PODCAST: The Big Story
Not So Long, Solimar

PODCAST: The Big Story
Will The Trade Desk Right-Size Its Margins?

PODCAST: The Big Story
The Human Cannes

PODCAST: The Big Story
Why The FTC Tied The Omnicom-IPG Merger To Brand Safety

Must Read

Marketers
The Rise Of Principal Media And The End Of The Agencies As We Knew Them

Ad agency holding companies are among the most adaptable businesses out there. In recent years holdcos like Publicis, WPP and Omnicom-IPG have stretched our notions of what an agency business even is exactly.

Artificial Intelligence
How One Agency Startup Uses Real-Time Data To Develop Real-Time Ads

Audience preferences are constantly evolving. So why not ads that evolve in real time, too? No, really.

Marketers
MyFitnessPal Wants To Start The Health And Wellness Subsector Of Retail Media

MyFitnessPal has just announced the launch of a data-driven advertising business that draws on its wealth of user-provided meal planning, fitness and nutrition data.

Measurement
Smartly Is Planning To Acquire INCRMNTAL Within The Next Few Weeks

Smartly is acquiring INCRMNTAL, an incrementality measurement startup founded in Tel Aviv in 2019 that focuses on causal lift rather than user-level tracking.

Marketers
Viant Had A Good Q4, But Still Needs To Punch Up At Bigger Platforms

Viant reported its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings on Wednesday evening and investors appeared pleased.

AI
The Boring Infrastructure That Could Make Agentic AI Happen For Ad Tech

AI agents are moving fast, but MadConnect says ad tech’s slow, messy plumbing still needs an overhaul before agentic marketing can really work.

Popular

Marketers
The Rise Of Principal Media And The End Of The Agencies As We Knew Them

Measurement
Smartly Is Planning To Acquire INCRMNTAL Within The Next Few Weeks

Smartly is acquiring INCRMNTAL, an incrementality measurement startup founded in Tel Aviv in 2019 that focuses on causal lift rather than user-level tracking.

PODCAST: The Big Story
Will The Trade Desk Right-Size Its Margins?

Fees, fees, fees. The Trade Desk is facing market pressure in all directions: from rival DSPs offering lower fee structures, SSPs and agencies clashing over its OpenPath product and bearish investors disappointed with growth. Guest Sarah Caputo, founder of consultancy Fraction Method, tells us why The Trade Desk should reduce its margin and make its fees more transparent.

Publishers
Future Is Training Its AI On Publisher First-Party Data

Future’s new Helix ad optimization solution adds AI-powered data science and predictive modeling to its in-house audience platform.

OPINION: On TV & Video
Why Ads.txt Needs To Evolve For Connected TV

Complexity hasn’t made the CTV supply chain difficult to trust. This is a transparency problem and, more specifically, an ads.txt problem.

Join the AdExchanger Community
Join Now

Your trusted source for in-depth programmatic news, views, education and events.
AdExchanger is where marketers, agencies, publishers and tech companies go for the latest information on the trends that are transforming digital media and marketing, from data, privacy, identity and AI to commerce, CTV, measurement and mobile.

NEXT EVENT
Programmatic AI
May 18-20, 2026Park MGM, Las Vegas
Learn More

ABOUT ADEXCHANGER
About Us
Advertise
Contact Us
Events
Subscribe
RSS
Cookie Settings
Privacy & Terms
Accessibility
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

CONNECT

The Media Spend Skim, a podcast produced by AdExchanger, explores current developments within the digital advertising ecosystem, focusing on critical issues and emerging trends. This particular episode, hosted by Sarah Sluis, centers on the increasing scrutiny surrounding fee structures and transparency within the ad tech industry, specifically examining the evolving practices of principal-based buying. The core narrative revolves around agencies—Publicis, WPP Media, and Dentsu—revisiting their relationships with The Trade Desk (TTD) following revelations of undisclosed fees and potential rebates.

The discussion is sparked by the story of Sarah Caputo, a consultant who uncovered hidden fees levied by TTD on a smaller agency’s account, mirroring a similar complaint from a WPP Media employee regarding questionable rebates. This highlights a concerning trend: companies are layering additional fees, often termed “non-product-related income” or “purchase risk media deals,” into their contracts, obfuscating their true financial performance and creating contention with agencies. The episode explores the implications of these opaque fees and the resulting disputes, questioning whether the pursuit of increased revenue is driving this shift. The piece emphasizes that, historically, practices like principal-based buying have faced scrutiny and undergone transformation, suggesting this situation may similarly evolve, but not necessarily disappear entirely.

Beyond this immediate conflict, the podcast investigates a nascent trend – the implementation of sell-side agents leveraging AI. Several publishers and ad tech companies are experimenting with developing these agents to automate and optimize internal processes. These AI-powered agents are designed to proactively respond to requests for proposals (RFPs), identify valuable inventory pockets, and facilitate bespoke matching of inventory with client needs. Andrew Byrd, the News Editor at AdExchanger, discusses the specific challenges these publishers and companies are tackling and the preliminary success of their early tests. The move reflects a broader effort to improve operational efficiency and personalization within the digital advertising landscape.

The discussion is contextualized through a series of related articles and stories published by AdExchanger. These include an analysis of the rise of principal media and the changing role of agencies, a deep dive into Smartly’s planned acquisition of INCRMNTAL, a look at Viant’s Q4 earnings, and exploration of how one agency startup is using real-time data to dynamically alter ad creative. Furthermore, the episode references broader industry concerns such as CTV measurement and the need for evolving ads.txt standards and the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the ad tech infrastructure. Ultimately, the episode underscores a critical shift in the dynamics between agencies and ad tech platforms, driven by a demand for greater transparency and a willingness to challenge established fee structures.