Exclusive: The Trade Desk Threatens to Demonetize Yahoo Video

The Trade Desk alerted buyers earlier this week of plans to no longer monetize Yahoo’s video after it alleged the publisher had been consistently misrepresenting the inventory as in-stream, a type of online video that typically fetches higher prices from buyers.

“Yahoo has been misdeclaring video inventory as in-stream,” according to an email seen by ADWEEK. “Thus far, Yahoo has been unwilling to rectify the issue.”

The Trade Desk said that if Yahoo didn’t make any changes, the DSP would disable access to Yahoo’s video inventory across open market and Trade Desk library deals by Monday, June 17. If the issue persists, The Trade Desk said it would disable access to all Yahoo video inventory, including one-to-one private marketplace deals, by July, per the email seen by ADWEEK.

However, that timeline could change as The Trade Desk and Yahoo are still negotiating.

“After informing clients we would be blocking incorrectly declared inventory, we are re-engaging in discussions with Yahoo and expect the inventory to correctly be declared soon,” a Trade Desk spokesperson said.

Yahoo said in a statement it has been trying over the “last few months” to work within The Trade Desk’s video inventory standards. Erin Miller, vp of corporate comms at Yahoo, said it will not implement The Trade Desk’s changes until “we are 100% confident that it is the right solution and aligns with our own standards.”

Miller said the solutions it’s tested to align with The Trade Desk’s interpretation have “consistently performed sub-optimally.”

The in-stream video debate

In-stream video inventory refers to ads that accompany editorially created video where the user has either chosen to play the video or the sound is on. This category typically fetches the highest cost per thousand impressions (CPMs) from buyers, which has made it rife for loose publisher interpretation.

One buyer source, who spoke to ADWEEK anonymously due to sensitive industry relations, said he had long been suspicious of Yahoo’s video inventory; the source claimed its CPMs were too low to be premium quality. Finding high-quality inventory programmatically has been such a challenge for buyers that some have abandoned the open exchange entirely, ADWEEK reported last year.

“[The Trade Desk’s] decision to prioritize transparency and fairness safeguards the interests of media buyers, reinforcing the importance of trust and genuine care in our industry,” a second buyer source, familiar with The Trade Desk’s enforcement actions toward Yahoo, told ADWEEK.

Last March, the IAB Tech Lab created new categories to classify video inventory to increase transparency for buyers. This new framework meant much of the video inventory that was once considered in-stream would no longer be classified as such, so publishers wouldn’t receive the accompanying higher CPMs, ADWEEK reported.

The Trade Desk was the first demand-side platform to publicly embrace and adopt the new video standards from the IAB Tech Lab, and signaled it would take on this enforcer role, ADWEEK reported in May 2023.

However, The Trade Desk declined to offer a specific timeline or plan for its enforcement, even by late August 2023, when many publishers still had not adopted the standards. The current threats to demonetize Yahoo’s allegedly misdeclared inventory indicate a shift toward more stringent enforcement.

The Trade Desk has been flexing its muscle recently as an arbiter of media quality. Earlier this month, the DSP published a list of the top 100 publishers, as part of a pivot toward marketing itself as a purveyor of the premium internet, and not the entirety of the open internet.

The list naturally rankled some publishers, ADWEEK reported. The Trade Desk is also working on a buying product that will let brands buy from a group of more than 500 top publishers, called SP500+.

Of note, Google’s adtech started requiring publishers to classify their inventory by the new IAB Tech Lab standards on April 1, AdExchanger reported. Publishers testing the new guidelines in Google saw double-digits drops in video ad revenue, AdExchanger reported.