Today’s MediaPost (reg. req’d) reports on the forthcoming launch of an online media buying platform to be powered by eBay. (Google was bidding to be the infrastructure provider but lost to eBay.):
The exchange, which grew out of former DaimlerChrylser executive Julie Roehm’s (now with Wal-mart) plea to test a “Nasdaq-like” concept for buying and selling media, has grown into a coalition of advertisers and agencies, but sill faces stiff opposition from media sellers, particularly big TV network executives who have vowed not to support it. A concurrent effort is being made by top agency executives to communicate and educate the media on why the system will not threaten to “commoditize” their advertising inventory and why they should participate in the test.
Meanwhile Right Media is trying to build an online ad inventory/media exchange, as is Root.net and several others. Because of the financial markets analogy there’s an air of inevitability about them. But there’s a potential “critical mass” problem here: if there aren’t enough buyers or sellers they won’t fly.
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Not an an exchange, but a network and AdSense competitor that reportedly gives publishers more control, Adify is slated to officially launch next week. I’ve been trying to catch up with them for several weeks with no luck. So read Om Malik’s overview.
Screenwerk 
August 5, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Great point about critical mass. One cool thing about the Right Media Exchange is that there are something like 3,000 advertisers and 8,000 publishers there via around 75 ad networks. Check out http://direct.rightmedia.com (the RMX Direct free ad server for small publishers) too.
Brian
October 17, 2006 at 3:13 pm
[…] This is a big deal for Right Media, which seeks to create a transparent marketplace for all online ad inventory. (AdECN is a competitor in the same effort.) One of Right’s challenges is getting participation of the majors (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, MSN) and this obviously involves Yahoo! Here’s an earlier post about online ad exchanges. […]