ESPN Stops Ad Sales Network, Seeks to Protect Brand

Date: 03-26-2008

ESPN.com has decided to swim against the current by turning off its ad network. The site is severing ties with Specific Media and several unnamed ad networks, saying “it no longer suits our business needs to work with ad networks.” Though the path that ESPN is taking is unclear, company sources suggest that the use of ad nets threatens existing relationships with advertisers, diminishing the value of their brand and content by spreading it superfluously. ESPN’s decision seems influenced by a hotly contested debate about the online ad sales industry at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual meeting last month. In the debate, incoming chair Wenda Harris Millard gave her now famous warning against selling web inventory like “pork bellies.” Sources further state that ESPN would have to enlist other publishers to support its efforts to clamp down on ad net growth. Meanwhile, Turner Entertainment is also rumored to be considering a similar move, although the company states that no action is currently in the cards and that its media practices are subject to constant review.

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