Radio broadcasting giant iHeartMedia is building out an ad tech stack -- and fast. The company now has enhanced audience-targeting data and measurement as well as a platform for programmatic radio selling and is plugged into a programmatic ad exchange. The industry is getting closer and closer to making automated cross-channel advertising -- inclusive of all channels -- a reality.

The Association of National Advertisers' decision to commission a study looking into how media is purchased by agencies for advertisers ensures the continued conversation revolving around rebates, arbitrage and anything else of that nature, It also all but guarantees that programmatic players will be included in the conversation like never before.

There has been a long dry spell on the "ad tech company gone public" front, as we haven't seen a major player go public since TubeMogul nearly one year ago, but some relevant news has bubbled to the surface this week. It serves as a reminder that several companies could still go public.

AppNexus has added a layer to its platform that allows advertisers and agencies -- as well as trading desks, networks and other ad tech companies -- to bring their own algorithms into the fold. AppNexus is calling it the "AppNexus Programmable Bidder," and the main draw of this new service layer is that it allows the buy-side to maintain control of its data.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a leader in developing and implementing industry standards in an effort to raise the overall quality of digital advertising, on Monday announced that its Tech Lab has taken over management of the Open Video Viewability ("OpenVV") initiative.

The shift Madison Avenue is making toward audience-targeting -- i.e., decoupling audiences from specific media and reaching them wherever and whenever, at least in theory -- is perhaps best seen and explained through the lens of mobile.

Aiming to simplify the programmatic landscape, Tel Aviv startup Komoona on Friday introduced what it's calling the "RTB Router," a mega-SSP of sorts that aids publishers with ad sale optimization. The company claims the "Router" is plugged into all of the major supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges on the market, though the company declined to name a single one of its integration partners when queried by 'Real-Time Daily.'

Forrester Research has combed through a spate of demand-side platforms (DSPs) and concluded that nine of them stand above the rest. Nine was a solid number to land at, but it does not paint the full picture because the DSP landscape is more oligopolistic than that.

Perhaps one of the reasons why viewability is such a hot topic -- other than the fact that it's irrefutable that an ad must have the opportunity to be seen in order to make an impact -- is that not everyone agrees with the standard of "viewability" that is being adopted by many in the industry. In fact, according to a recent survey carried out by SQAD, most ad professionals feel that the current industry standard of "viewability" for desktop video advertisements is insufficient.

Recent eMarketer projections predict programmatic ad spend to boom, with U.S. advertisers expected to spend $14.88 billion to purchase digital display ads programmatically this year -- just over a quarter of the $58.61 billion total digital ad spend anticipated this year. Looking back at year-end 2014 data, it's easy to see why programmatic ad spend is expected to continue to soar. In its latest quarterly report, which examines data from Q4 2014, Index Exchange reveals that spend on its exchange grew by more than 50% quarter-over-quarter.