---
type: source
title: "OpenX's Erika Loberg: Race-to-Bottom CPMs Threatens Premium Content Creation"
author: "Erika Loberg (OpenX), Beet.TV"
url: https://www.beet.tv/2025/11/openxs-erika-loberg-race-to-bottom-cpms-threatens-premium-content-creation.html
date: 2025-11-15
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: [internet-finance]
format: transcript
status: null-result
priority: medium
tags: [ad-supported, cpm-race-to-bottom, premium-content, content-quality, revenue-model]
processed_by: clay
processed_date: 2026-03-11
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
extraction_notes: "Single new claim extracted. Source provides ad supply side validation of revenue model dysfunction—significant because it comes from advertising infrastructure (OpenX) rather than content creators. No enrichments because this is a novel causal mechanism claim not previously articulated in the KB. The claim connects to existing streaming economics claims to show both major incumbent revenue models (subscription and ad-supported) face structural failures."
---

## Content

Erika Loberg, global head of CTV at OpenX, warns that CPM race to bottom threatens premium content creation.

Key quotes and data:
- "That race to the bottom isn't a good thing for this entire ecosystem"
- "Asking for the lowest CPM and reducing yield on the publisher side isn't going to help anyone because then you're going to see this influx or this change in availability of premium content"
- "Content creation is very expensive right now. As a consumer, I want really good content that I can keep watching and binging and staying within that platform, that's expensive"
- Destructive cycle: advertisers demanding lowest-cost CPMs → publishers reduce yield → premium content production undermined
- Quality should represent baseline standards rather than premium tiers
- Published December 15, 2025

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** Industry insider confirming from the AD SUPPLY SIDE that the ad-supported revenue model structurally degrades content quality. When CPMs race to bottom, the economic basis for premium content erodes. This validates the mechanism: ad-supported = downward pressure on quality. The escape is to decouple content economics from ad revenue — which is exactly what content-as-loss-leader and subscription models do.
**What surprised me:** The admission comes from an AD TECH company (OpenX), not a content creator. Even the ad ecosystem recognizes that its own incentive structure threatens the content it depends on. Self-awareness of structural dysfunction.
**What I expected but didn't find:** Specific data on how much content quality has actually declined due to CPM pressure. The claim is directional (race to bottom threatens quality) but not quantified.
**KB connections:** [[streaming churn may be permanently uneconomic because maintenance marketing consumes up to half of average revenue per user]] — CPM race to bottom is the ad-supported equivalent of streaming's churn problem. Both are structural failures of the incumbent revenue model. [[when profits disappear at one layer of a value chain they emerge at an adjacent layer through the conservation of attractive profits]] — profits disappearing from ad-supported content may emerge at subscription/community/complement layers.
**Extraction hints:** This supports a claim about revenue model → content quality: "Ad-supported revenue models structurally incentivize content quantity over quality because CPM competition drives down the unit economics of premium content production."
**Context:** CTV (Connected TV) advertising is a $30B+ market. OpenX is a major programmatic advertising exchange. Loberg's perspective represents the advertising infrastructure layer.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[streaming churn may be permanently uneconomic because maintenance marketing consumes up to half of average revenue per user]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Evidence from the ad ecosystem itself that ad-supported models structurally degrade content quality — supporting the thesis that alternative revenue models (loss-leader, subscription) enable better content
EXTRACTION HINT: This is EVIDENCE for the revenue-model-determines-quality claim, not a standalone claim. Pair with Dropout and MrBeast sources for the full picture.


## Key Facts
- CTV advertising market is $30B+ (2025)
- OpenX is a major programmatic advertising exchange operating in CTV space
