# The Negotiated Future: Ethan Settel on Newton Research, Agentic Media Buying, and the Reinvention of Media Operations Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/signal-noise-7426109/the-negotiated-future-ethan-settel-on-newton-research-agentic-media-buying-and-the-reinvention-of-media-operations Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/signal-noise-7426109/the-negotiated-future-ethan-settel-on-newton-research-agentic-media-buying-and-the-reinvention-of-media-operations.md Podcast: [Signal & Noise](https://stenobird.com/podcast/signal-noise-7426109) Published: 2026-06-04T12:30:00+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/signal--noise3/episodes/The-Negotiated-Future-Ethan-Settel-on-Newton-Research--Agentic-Media-Buying--and-the-Reinvention-of-Media-Operations-e3jlfdm Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/103996624/podcast/play/120290166/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-3%2F425461883-44100-2-4417618a223c3.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/signal-noise-7426109/episodes/the-negotiated-future-ethan-settel-on-newton-research-agentic-media-buying-and-the-reinvention-of-media-operations Duration seconds: 3416 ## Resource What happens when AI stops assisting media teams and starts acting on their behalf? In this episode of Signal & Noise, we sit down with Ethan Settel, Head of Sales & Accounts at Newton Research, to explore one of the most important developments in advertising today: the emergence of agentic media buying. While much of the industry remains focused on AI tools that summarize dashboards, generate briefs, or automate reporting, Newton Research is pursuing something far more ambitious. The company is building specialized AI agents that can connect data, execute advanced analytics, build forecasting models, recommend optimizations, and increasingly interact directly with media platforms to support planning, buying, and activation. At the center of our conversation is a provocative thesis: the future of advertising may be negotiated by machines. Rather than relying on human teams to manually interpret reports, adjust budgets, and coordinate across dozens of disconnected systems, agentic platforms like Newton are creating teams of AI specialists that can work together to analyze campaign performance, simulate scenarios, and execute media decisions with unprecedented speed and precision. These agents can communicate with DSPs, publishers, clean rooms, and planning tools, transforming what has historically been a fragmented and labor-intensive process into an increasingly automated operating model. We also discuss Newton’s groundbreaking work with NBCUniversal, FreeWheel, Yahoo, and Locality, where buy-side and sell-side AI agents collaborated to support premium video buying across linear television and streaming. The initiative offers a compelling glimpse into a future where software agents negotiate inventory directly with one another, potentially reshaping the role of… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/signal-noise-7426109/episodes/the-negotiated-future-ethan-settel-on-newton-research-agentic-media-buying-and-the-reinvention-of-media-operations/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/signal-noise-7426109/the-negotiated-future-ethan-settel-on-newton-research-agentic-media-buying-and-the-reinvention-of-media-operations.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.