Pricing sponsored content in wireless networks with multiple content providers

We study the problem faced by a wireless network operator when offering a “sponsored content” service to multiple content providers. We consider a sequential setting for deciding how much content to sponsor in advance of a fixed time period (e.g. a month). The service provider first sets prices for sponsoring and then the content providers react by deciding how much content to sponsor. Finally the end users react by accessing content depending on what has been sponsored. We consider the case of multiple content providers and derive mechanisms that should be followed by the service provider for pricing their sponsored content offerings. In this setting it is important to consider all content providers in a single optimization since they share a common pool of service provider bandwidth. Our solutions differ depending on whether the demand to each content provider is deterministic or stochastic and on whether the service provider is allowed to set individual prices to the different content providers.