TL;DR; iAd is not going away. iAd is changing in ways that should benefit developers.

Last week Apple made an announcement about changes to the iAd network:

iAd App Network will be Discontinued

Apple also informed users of iTunes Radio that ad-supported radio stations would be discontinued January 28.

This has caused some confusion for developers. iAd is not going away, but it will be changing (for the better!). Unfortunately Apple has not be clear enough for many about what is changing and what the effects may be.

What is the iAd App Network, anyway?

The iAd App Network is the platform for targetted ad campaigns. An advertiser would use this for creating a campaign to be displayed through iAd in applications. For example, a developer could create an ad for their application and advertise on the iAd App Network.

What is changing for developers?

Previously, an application developer would receive 70% of ad revenue. The other 30% would go to Apple as a sort of commission - Apple’s sales team and infrastructure matched the advertising campaign with the application displaying it.

In iOS 9 Apple introduced the News application, which allowed news publishers to provide content and advertisements through the application. News publishers get 70% of revenue through ads sold through the iAd App Network but 100% through ads they sold directly. News publishers have the option of not using Apple’s iAd sales team to sell the add (not display it, sell it), which gets them 100%. This is an important distinction. Here is the exact text from Apple’s News Publisher Guide:

• Sell your own ads and keep 100% of the revenue. These ads can appear within your articles, as well as in between articles in your channel. • Enable iAd backfill to allow iAd to sell ads in your content and keep 70% of the revenue.

Moving forward application developers will be (likely) be able to get a 100% revenue share just like News publishers by selling the ad directly (using iAd Workbench).

What does this mean for me?

What does this mean for a developer? You will have more responsibility for the ads appearing in your app. This gives a developer more control, which may be a good thing. For these ads you should see 100% of the revenue, not 70%.

Developers will not be able to publish new ads for their own apps unless that app is already part of the iAd App Network. Few developers have been advertising their own apps through iAd, so this will not affect that many people.