Marketers and agency execs who have worked on the online system to buy and sell media - an initiative led by Wal-Mart's recently ousted Julie Roehm - say the system remains on track for release next year.

Wal-Mart will continue to participate in the trial, expects David Grubb, Microsoft's global media director, writes MediaPost (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Grubb points out that while Roehm was "the spiritual beginning of the initiative," there is still "a lot of momentum across a lot of fronts."

The system is expected to launch during the second-quarter scatter market, according to Grubb. The aim is to have marketers pool $50 million to spend, most likely on cable networks, but so far no network has agreed to participate. They likely fear that the system will turn their inventory into a commodity and will hinder the movement toward selling integrated packages.

A survey conducted by the Jack Myers Media Business Report last month found that merely 12.5 percent of advertisers think the online auction has a "very good" or "excellent" chance of succeeding, though 28 percent say it has "some potential."