While Hollywood producers squabble with striking writers over the digital pie, the web's leading marketers insist ads and premium content may not go hand in hand.

"I think the jury is still out on ad-supported premium content," Ira Rubenstein, EVP of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment said at ad:tech. "The iTunes model is what's dominating the market. People seem more than willing to pay for professionally produced content."

In other words, the ad-supported internet model may not be a forgone conclusion.

Ted McConnell of Procter & Gamble agreed, pointing out that consumers who pay internet service providers for web access may not think ads should be run before, during or after premium content.

While the realization that advertisers may not be able to monetize a particular platform -- in this case, video sites focusing on high-end content -- may have been cause for alarm at past ad:tech conferences, this year's crowd seemed decidedly unconcerned about that proposition.

"What we're really talking about with all these platforms is unbelievable fragmentation," McConnell said, raising the question of which platforms were viable.

For Curt Hecht, EVP of Mediavest, the thing to look for is scale.

"Search has obviously scaled," Hecht said. "Mobile will scale."

But scale in the digital age isn't all it's cracked up to be. Drew Reifenberger, SVP at Turner's Superdeluxe, pointed out that the next cool thing doesn't necessarily translate into a good ad platform. The sexy numbers put up by user-generated content sites like YouTube aren't a panacea for digital advertisers, according to Reifenberger.

"We love UGC, but it's a form of social expression, not an ad platform."  

For advertisers, that means having the discipline to question the next cool thing before they bet on it.

"We see a ton of very cool stuff everyday, but before you get excited, you have to ask if anyone is using it," said Reifenberger. "Usually the answer is no, and so you need to stick with platforms that people are actually using."