There is a big push for transparency in the digital advertising market. Media firms (mainly publishers and advertising intermediaries) are demanding more and more disclosure. We agree in the market need for it. So we’ve been piggy backing on that since May, by disclosing payment data.

Ever 3 months we release a FREE digital media payments report. In it we release general payment trends we are noticing and payment performance data on 127 firms. The goal is to shine a light on credit and payment data. Why? So fast growing media companies can avoid the pitfall of trading with a firm that pays late or inconsistently. That one unknown can have very adverse affects on a business. For example, a 9 day shortfall requires 15% more cash on hand, roughly.

So, you want to sign up with a new demand partner (i.e advertising exchange). Ok. What are their terms? Do they pay on time? If not how often are they late? Do they offset their payments if there is a dispute? If so, by how much? How often are the offsets? Why are there offsets?

These are the questions we answer in our free payment report. All we ask for is your e-mail. We think that is a fair trade for our data.

The data is as objective as possible. However when you look at data over time, you see trends. We draw analyses and commentary at Digiday.

Here’s what we’re reporting on:

• As a part of our entire portfolio, late payments have steadily declined into Q4, 2018. Late payments as a % of our portfolio peaked in November, 2017.
• Of the late payments, they got much worse in December, 2018: average wait days jumped to 9, versus 6.5 for all of 2018. And the amount of late payments more than 15 days late doubled.
• Video platforms are some of the “most consistently late” and latest to pay (in days).
• Mobile platforms are at the extremes: like video, their pay performance is “late”, but they also pay the earliest and on time (ex-Apple, who pays 26 days early on average).
• Acquired companies tends to have a decrease in pay performance. That means after they are acquired, their payments tend to become late and or inconsistently paid (as to timing).

See how this compares to our Q3, 2018 Digital Media Payments Report