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The End Of The Programmatic Pageview

Recorded: May 29, 2026, 1:04 p.m.

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The End Of The Programmatic Pageview | AdExchanger

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Home The Big Story The End Of The Programmatic Pageview

PODCAST: The Big Story
The End Of The Programmatic Pageview By Sarah Sluis

Friday, May 29th, 2026 – 8:19 am
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Producing great content doesn’t always lead to a great outcome.
Two of early 2010’s media darlings, BuzzFeed and Vox Media, were bright spots in the audience era. They focused on scale. And even though they competed against social media platforms and the tens of thousands of long-tail sites hooked up to SSPs, they seemed like they would make it.
But this spring, those two companies entered new chapters. Last week, Vox Media was acquired by James Murdoch at a $300 million dollar valuation. Byron Allen closed his acquisition of BuzzFeed this week– for a mere $20 million in cash followed by $100 million in five years. Vox and BuzzFeed have been struggling and looking for buyers, and sometimes many. (Vox only sold part of its business). The modest transaction prices, a fraction of the companies’ one-time valuations, reflect the shifting sands of media in the age of AI.

Pirating persists
How did you watch the latest NFL game? Or stream your sports? While many of us subscribe to streaming services or watch on linear, there are millions of people who watch pirated streams of content mirrored off of other devices.
AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher, who covered an Adalytics report documenting the scope of these pirated streams, talks about how this behavior affects different constituents in the TV space: the advertisers, the programmers, the viewers and the measurement companies.
On the advertising side, in some sense many advertisers get “free” ads shown to this undercounted audience. But there’s also the possibility that bespoke, tailored programmatic ads could be mirrored to thousands of viewers.
In a TV environment where advertisers are exacting performance and programmers need every streaming subscription they can muster, should piracy be met with a shrug or a concerted effort to plug the hole?

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Publishers

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publishing

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Vox Media

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© 2026 Access Intelligence, LLC - All Rights Reserved

The shifting landscape of media, exemplified by the acquisitions of Vox Media by James Murdoch and BuzzFeed by Byron Allen, reflects the changing dynamics of the media industry in the age of artificial intelligence. These transactions, which involved relatively modest valuations compared to earlier market assessments, illustrate the turbulence affecting media entities as they navigate the current environment. This context is set against the backdrop of persistent issues within the television and streaming space, particularly concerning content access and measurement integrity.

A significant issue highlighted is the widespread practice of pirated content streaming, where millions of individuals watch content mirrored from various devices. This behavior has complex repercussions across the various stakeholders in the TV ecosystem, including advertisers, programmers, viewers, and measurement companies. AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher documented the scope of these pirated streams in an Adalytics report, underscoring the operational friction this practice introduces. The dilemma presented is whether this piracy should be disregarded or if concerted efforts must be made to address this leakage, especially given that advertisers demand performance and programmers require substantial streaming subscriptions.

Furthermore, the broader media industry is grappling with the impact of generative artificial intelligence on content valuation. Discussions have emerged regarding how the rise of AI-generated content is redefining the understanding of premium content within the industry. Related thematic discussions also touch upon identity in Connected TV, where email-based identifiers face credibility challenges as buyers and sellers question their relevance within a channel designed for broader reach. The evolution of programmatic advertising itself is also acknowledged as increasingly complex, now compounded by the emergence of generative AI technologies. Additionally, publishers are facing the challenge of managing access to their content amid the rise of AI search engines, with suggestions that they should focus on licensing access and creating content tailored for AI crawlers rather than outright blocking access. The overarching theme is the need to reconcile evolving technological realities with the commercial and structural demands of the media ecosystem.