Magnite follows The Trade Desk in looking for ad-tech circumvention

Ad-tech middlemen are playing with scissors, trying to cut out…well, other middlemen.

Earlier this week, supply-side platform Magnite announced a new product it’s pitching as an “efficient route to premium video inventory.” Called ClearLine, it will essentially enable advertisers to access CTV inventory from Magnite in a linear chain. That’s notable because advertisers usually bid on and buy inventory from an SSP via demand-side platforms.

Refresher: Traditionally, SSPs (representing publishers and content) and DSPs (representing advertisers) worked in concert, selling and buying ads across the digital hedge maze that is programmatic advertising. But recent moves from ad-tech companies indicate perhaps a more complicated relationship.

“Our aim is not to remove the DSPs from the programmatic equation but to provide more buying options to fit the needs of our clients,” Andrew Meaden, global head of investment at GroupM, which is using ClearLine, told AdExchanger. Sure, but it probably wouldn’t hurt.

Just a year ago, The Trade Desk, one of the biggest DSPs, announced OpenPath, its own product that leapfrogs SSPs, letting advertisers buy inventory directly from publishers. In a way, Magnite and The Trade Desk are doing the Spider-man meme.

“It’s really allowed us to see what a clean, unadulterated supply chain can look like,” Will Doherty, VP of inventory development at The Trade Desk, recently told Digiday.

Zoom out: There’s always been a cyclical churn in ad tech, Shiv Gupta, the founder of ad-tech education platform U of Digital, explained to Marketing Brew. He said plenty of companies work “both sides,” like Google, Amazon, and previously Yahoo, though it just shuttered its SSP.

The Trade Desk may “even believe, in a weird way, that they’re not disintermediating SSPs, but they are,”  he said.

Unrelated, related: On Wednesday, Andrew Casale, president and CEO of the SSP Index Exchange, released an open letter intended to “reassert our unwavering dedication” to DSPs.

“With Magnite’s entry into the buy side, effectively becoming competitive with DSPs, I fully acknowledge the significance of maintaining strong, reliable partnerships,” he wrote. “Our mission does not involve bypassing DSPs, buy-side platforms, or engaging in dual-sided operations.”