SpotX Announces Support for IAB's ads.txt to Verify Seller Credentials

DENVER, Sept. 11, 2017 -- Video ad serving platform SpotX today announced that it has adopted the IAB’s ads.txt initiative to help ensure all inventory available on its platform comes from owned-and-operated publishers or authorized premium video resellers with the contractual rights to resell the inventory.

SpotX has been aggressively taking steps to ensure all inventory available to buyers via its platform is sourced directly from owned-and-operated publishers or authorized premium video resellers with the rights to monetize inventory.

To further these initiatives, SpotX is driving the adoption of the IAB Tech Lab’s recently introduced ads.txt technical solution, which provides a secured, text file-based mechanism for publishers and distributors to publicly declare the companies they authorize to sell their digital inventory.

SpotX’s CTO J. Allen Dove was a part of the founding committee for ads.txt, the first version of which was released to the industry on June 27. “SpotX employs a variety of methods and technologies to actively remove unauthorized traffic and to ensure buyers are accessing high-quality, brand safe inventory”, according to Dove. “Ads.txt is one more tool in our fight against fraud in video advertising and we are working very closely with our publishers to ensure SpotX is appropriately listed as an authorized platform.” 

MailOnline, Microsoft Casual Games, Monumetric, Newsweek Media Group, Rolling Stone, tvweb.com and movieweb.com are among the publishers that have already implemented ads.txt and added SpotX to their file. SpotX also anticipates that buyers will eventually move to only buying inventory that adheres to the ads.txt initiative.

SpotX has always valued and pushed transparency and inventory assurance for buyers. In addition to the support and deployment of the new ads.txt protocol, SpotX also provides:

• A dedicated brand safety team: heavy investments in both technology and manpower to address brand safety issues.
• Anti-fraud monitoring: Partnerships with key authentication vendors like DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Meetrics, SimilarWeb and Zvelo. Every impression that runs through SpotX’s platform is verified on a pre-bid basis.
• TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal: We're certified under the Trustworthy Accountability Group’s (TAG) anti-fraud seal.
• Blacklists and whitelists: We have a platform blacklist which blocks unsafe, invalid or low-quality domains, and prevents unauthorized URLs from monetizing on our platform. SpotX can also implement whitelists based on buyers’ preferences, so that URLs that have been authorized directly by SpotX can be targeted.  

Media contacts
North America – Chris Byrne, [email protected], +1 646 683 0184
JAPAC – Mandy Davenport, [email protected], +61 414 015 005
EMEA – Joanna Burton, [email protected], +020 8068 4444

About SpotX
SpotX is a video ad serving platform providing media owners with monetization tools for desktop, mobile and connected devices. The platform features modern ad serving and programmatic infrastructure, and other monetization tools, like solutions for OTT and outstream video ad units. SpotX gives publishers the control, transparency and actionable insights needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has offices in Amsterdam, Belfast, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Stockholm, Singapore and Sydney. In October 2017, RTL Group, a leader across broadcast, content and digital, will complete its 100% acquisition of SpotX. For updates, follow SpotX on Twitter and LinkedIn.