The reference ratefor attention.

Coal was priced. Oil was priced. Compute was priced. Attention is the last great factor of production without a number. Thalo publishes it.

Daily. Transaction-based. Free.

APX-CTV30$28.4016:00 ET, indicative level
01. The pattern

Every commodity that mattered got a price first.

The winner of each market was never the exchange. It was the benchmark, the neutral number everyone agreed to settle against. Attention is next in the sequence, and its index does not exist yet.

1860s

Coal & Iron

The ton and the rail tariff

A standard ton and a posted freight rate made an industrial economy's fuel tradeable for the first time.

1980s

Oil & Gas

WTI, Brent, Henry Hub

A barrel from Texas and one from the North Sea became comparable. The benchmark, not the barrel, was what the world quoted.

2020s

Compute

GPU-hour indices and forwards

A GPU-hour became a reference-priced, hedgeable unit. The benchmark, not the cloud, defined the market.

2026

Attention

APX

The largest unpriced factor of production left. Attention is already traded forward. Thalo gives it the one thing every commodity got first: a number.

The market

Attention already trades. It just has no price.

A trillion impressions clear every day, each one a tiny transaction. What none of them has is a single number to settle against.

0:1

Quoted price spread for a single product: one 30-second US CTV spot.

0

Instruments that exist today to hedge the largest line item in advertising.

$0

Cost of the daily APX fix. Published free at 16:00 ET, forever.

APX / Options
APX 26C$3.10+0.12
APX 28C$1.85-0.04
APX 30C$0.95+0.08
APX 32C$0.40-0.02
APX 28P$1.40+0.05
APX 30P$2.85-0.10
APX 26C$3.10+0.12
APX 28C$1.85-0.04
APX 30C$0.95+0.08
APX 32C$0.40-0.02
APX 28P$1.40+0.05
APX 30P$2.85-0.10
APX 26C$3.10+0.12
APX 28C$1.85-0.04
APX 30C$0.95+0.08
APX 32C$0.40-0.02
APX 28P$1.40+0.05
APX 30P$2.85-0.10
02. The problem

There is no such thing as the CTV CPM.

Ask what a 30-second connected-TV ad costs and you will hear numbers from $4.82 to $65, a thirteen-to-one spread. Every one is correct. They measure different things. A market cannot settle on a price it cannot define.

APX Fix · $28.40
Open-exchange clearing
$4.82
FAST (Tubi / Pluto)
$15.00
Roku Channel
$20.00
Broad CTV, untargeted
$25.00
Blended benchmark
$28.00
Audience-targeted CTV
$45.00
Premium, highly targeted
$65.00

Hover any tier to inspect its price and what it measures. Every number here is a real quote for the same 30-second spot - a thirteen-to-one spread with no agreed reference.

Illustrative levels compiled from public rate cards and exchange data. Full methodology available on request.

APX-S-CTV30-US / v1Grade specification
Format30-second, non-skippable, in-stream
GeographyUnited States, national delivery
AudienceAdults 18-49
Supply pathDirect only (ads.txt verified)
TierStandard
MeasurementIndependent volume verification
TransactionProgrammatic, cleared
CurrencyUSD per 1,000 impressions
Publication16:00 ET, daily, T+1
GovernanceIOSCO Principles + MRC audit
03. The mechanism

How the fix is made.

01

Contributors

SSPs, verification vendors and publishers supply transaction records and independently verified impression counts.

02

Administrator

Thalo ingests records, applies exclusions by rule, and computes the volume-weighted median per partition.

03

APX Fix

The daily benchmark publishes at 16:00 ET, T+1, free, forever. No judgment. No discretion.

04

Distribution

Terminal feeds, API access, data subscriptions, calculation-agent services and exchange licensing.

APX / Futures
APX M+1$27.90-0.50
APX M+3$31.20+2.80
APX M+6$34.80+6.40
APX Q4$41.50+13.10
APX M+12$33.20+4.80
APX M+1$27.90-0.50
APX M+3$31.20+2.80
APX M+6$34.80+6.40
APX Q4$41.50+13.10
APX M+12$33.20+4.80
APX M+1$27.90-0.50
APX M+3$31.20+2.80
APX M+6$34.80+6.40
APX Q4$41.50+13.10
APX M+12$33.20+4.80
04. The forward curve

A fix makes the future priceable.

Once a daily fix exists, the forward curve follows. This is what attention looks like priced six months out, Q4 attention locked in Q2.

Forward curve

indicative / APX-CTV30
$24$28$32$36$40$44Q4 peak · $41.50SpotM+1M+2M+3M+4M+6M+8Q4M+12
Join the working group

Help define the number.

The grade specification is being written now. The methodology will be published for formal consultation. Sign up to join the group defining the first transaction-based CTV price benchmark.