Bo Han’s Post

Sharp & conviction-driven take by my teammate & Transmit cofounder, Scott. Supply-side platforms are facing extinction because neutrality is no longer a strategy. For years, being “agnostic pipes” ceded their core advantage, access to demand, to players like The Trade Desk. The ones that survive won’t be brokers, they’ll be builders. They’ll create differentiated value by unlocking inventory that’s scarce, contextually relevant, and premium. And there’s nothing more premium than live sports. It’s real-time, cultural, and impossible to commoditize. The opportunity isn’t just selling the same ad pods, it’s inventing new incremental inventory around highlights, replays, and in-game moments that fans actually care about. Inventory that didn’t exist in linear, but now can be made addressable at scale. That’s the work we’re doing at Transmit: re-architecting monetization to grow the pie, not just shift it. We’re building new, innovative ad formats that improve the fan experience while creating value in an already compressed rights market. Take UFC as an example...their rights fees doubled, but it’s safe to say monetization hasn’t. That’s where we come in: delivering incremental, targeted, addressable, and contextually relevant inventory that helps publishers and rights holders close the gap between soaring rights costs and sustainable economics. SSPs that endure will do the same — stop being neutral pipes, and start creating tangible value for the entire ecosystem. [Link to article in comments]