On this week’s episode of The MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire’s Ciaran O'Kane and Lindsay Rowntree are joined by James Prudhomme, executive vice president, international, Index Exchange, to discuss the latest news in ad tech and martech.

On this week's episode:

- In the continuing fallout from announcing that it is dropping support for third-party cookies within two years, Google is consulting with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in coming up with alternative solutions. However, unlike within advertising industry bodies, publishers and brand advertisers are mostly absent from W3C, meaning they could become largely under-represented when providing feedback on cookie alternatives. Should Google be consulting with multiple cross-industry consortia? Should brands and publishers have a say?

- The ICO have released an update on their investigation into the ad tech industry and the underlying mechanics of real-time bidding (RTB). While the data protection authority is not wholly satisfied, and will still be investigating the industry, they are "heartened" by progress. Will we see a hardening of their stance in response from angered privacy groups? Has the ICO's investigation been weakened by Google deciding to shut off the third-party cookie?

- At a meeting of the paper's staff this week, New York Times president and chief executive Mark Thompson announced digital revenue had reached USD$800m (£613m), a full year ahead of schedule. With over five million subscribers, just 900,000 of which receive the newspaper in broadsheet form, does the NYT model show the way for UK and global publishers?

The MadTech Podcast is also available on:
Spotify
TuneIn
Apple iTunes
Google Podcasts
Stitcher
Pocket Casts
RadioPublic
CastBox
Deezer