At a London event, YouTube's UK/Ireland managing director tells advertisers they should spend 24% of their budget at YouTube. What nerve!

"We messed up," writes the IAB's vice president of technology and ad operations, to describe how the ad blocking problem evolved and offering a sort of technological mea culpa.

Online users are less antagonistic toward ads that target their interests than targeted ads. Viewers are most turned off by mobile pop-up ads, followed by in-banner autoplay, pre-roll and variations -- but they appreciate mobile reward-for-viewing gambits, followed by ad strategies that give the viewer some control.

Playboy digital and marketing exec Robin Zucker was the guest at MediaPost's Publishing Insider Summit and began her talk asking, "Who knew Playboy and 'safe-for-work' could be used in the same sentence?"

Both of those hot-button items came up early and often during the opening sessions of MediaPost's Publishing Insider Summit, which began Monday at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C.

Altogether programmatic ad buying of display ads will surpass traditional direct sales this year, accounting for about 3 out of every 5 digital dollars spent.

Right now, the buzz phrase is "premium content." Defining it has gotten even more elastic as more clients demand it.

Forrester Research says that 24% of Americans don't subscribe to a pay TV service, and 18% of them are cord-nevers.

Viewers and voters can't do anything about the nauseating political ads that will fill TV airwaves pretty soon. But to avoid the $1 billion aimed for online political spending, they can use ad blockers. Can you blame them?

User interaction with OTT services is still primitive and not very user-friendly. Apple TV aims to change that with a good universal search that will tell you what's where,