First, I predicted this my report, (attached at the end) and also — Let’s not sugarcoat this: the digital advertising economy is running on IOUs and prayer. And unless you're one of the six companies with a functioning AP department and a moral compass, chances are you’re treating “net 30” like a suggestion and “net 120” like a lifestyle.

Oarex just dropped its H1 2025 Digital Media and Advertising Payments Report, and it reads like a financial crime thriller where everyone's the villain and the only victims are liquidity and common sense.

Let’s start with the big, embarrassing headline:
58% of all payments are now late. That’s not a trend. That’s an ecosystem-wide confession that nobody knows how to manage cash anymore—or worse, that they do, and they're just screwing their partners on purpose.

Programmatic demand, always the overpromiser, is now clocking in at 53% late, up from 41%. You'd think automation would make things faster. But no, it's just automating the dysfunction.

Agencies? Ah yes, the eternal black hole of media money. Payments from agencies are now 67% late. That’s two-thirds of the time. So if you're a publisher wondering why your Q2 looked like a hostage situation—this is why.

And don’t get cozy if you’re a brand. Manual brand payments are still 62% late. That’s less a stat and more a shrug from someone who “forgot” to submit the invoice to their boss.

Now for the delays that truly insult your intelligence:
Nearly one-third (32%) of payments are more than five days late.
Even worse, 18% are more than 15 days late. In adland, 15 days might as well be a fiscal quarter. And this is supposed to be the high-tech future?

There’s a sliver of hope, if you want to call it that: underpayments are down to 10%, from 14% in late 2024. Progress? Technically. But mostly because people aren’t even paying at all, so it’s hard to underpay when the check hasn’t been sent.

And now, the real punch to the gut:
Only 13% of companies qualify as "reliable payers."
That’s down from 21%, which already wasn't impressive. At this point, you’d have better odds betting on a crypto startup than getting paid on time in this business.

But let’s give credit where it’s due. Six companies—yes, only six—have never paid late in the last six months (with at least six payments made):
Google, OpenX, TripleLift, Walker Advertising, Tonic, and Ads.com.
Go ahead and print that out. Tape it to your fridge. Frame it on your wall. These are the unicorns. The rest? Somewhere between a Ponzi scheme and a group chat where nobody wants to split the dinner bill.

Bottom line?
The ad industry isn’t running out of money. It’s just running out of excuses.
And if this is the “norm,” we’re all about to learn the hard way what happens when everyone decides to pay late—at the same time. Spoiler: it doesn’t end well.

You just read the free teaser. The good stuff? That’s behind the velvet rope — and it’s worth every penny.

While everyone else is busy reposting AI-generated thought-leadership about “connected consumer journeys” and “future-proofing the funnel,” we’re busy pulling the fire alarm on adtech’s fragile payment ecosystem. And we’re naming names.

💰 DSPs are defaulting. SSPs are insuring themselves against collapse.
You think MediaMath was a one-off? Cute. The dominoes are already wobbling — and if you’re in this industry, you need to know who’s next.

📉 Teads? More like the WeWork of SSPs. Late payments, free cash flow faceplants, and force majeure used like breath mints.
We’re talking real documents, insider info, and a deep dive into why publishers are blacklisting partners and demanding bank statements, not buzzwords.

Here’s what you missed (and can still read if you upgrade):

This isn’t industry gossip — it’s survival strategy.
If you’re still trusting your ad dollars to a vendor with “AI-optimized bidding” but no cash on hand… well, enjoy your mystery net-120 invoice.