Ad Insertion Archives – Page 3 of 4 – The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: SCTE-35 In-band Event Signalling in OTT

Posted on 17th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

SCTE-35 has been used for a long time in TV to signal ad break insertions and other events and in recent years has been evolved into SCTE-104 and SCTE-224. But how can SCTE-35 be used in live OTT and what are the applications?

The talk starts with a look at what SCTE is and what SCTE-35 does – namely digital program insertion. Then the talk moves on to discuss the most well-known, and the original, use case of local ad insertion. This use case is due to the fact that ads are sold nationally and locally so whereas the national ads can be played from the playout centre, the local ads need to be inserted closer to the local transmitter.

Alex Zambelli, Principal Product Manager at Hulu, then explains the message format in SCTE along with the commands and descriptors giving us an idea of what type of information can be sent and how it might be structured. Looking then to applying this to OTT, Alex continues to look at SCTE-224 which defines how to signal SCTE-35 in DASH.

For those who still use HLS rather than DASH, Alex looks at a couple of different ways of using this with Apple, perhaps unsurprisingly, preferring a method different from the one recommended by SCTE.

The talk finishes with a discussion of the challenges of using SCTE in OTT applications.
See the slides

Watch now!
Speaker

Alex Zambelli
Principal Product Manager,
Hulu

Video: The Future of SSAI on OTT Devices

Posted on 6th September 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Whether it’s to thwart ad blockers or to compensate for unreliable players, server-side ad insertion (SSAI) has an important role for many ad-based services. Phil Cluff is here to look at today’s difficulties and to look into the future.

Talking at the August Seattle Video Tech meet up, Phil looks at how we got where we are and why SSAI came about in the first place. He then looks at the manifest-manipulation method of doing this before seeing how well OTT devices actually support it showing inconsistent support for DRM in DASH and HLS. Smart TVs are a big problem delivering consistent viewing with all being different and even the new ones being delivered into the market now are few compared to the older, 5+ year-old TVs.

One solution to levelling the playing field is to distribute Chromecasts which works fairly well in allowing any device to be come a streaming device. Another option is to use server-side sitting SSAI meaning the video stream itself has the advert in it. One problem with this approach is the impracticality to target individual users. HbbTV and ATSC 3.0 are other ways to deliver adverts to the television.

Beacons are a way of players singling back to the ad networks that adverts were actually shown so Phil takes a look at how these will change as time moves on before opening up to questions from the floor.

Watch now!
Speakers

Phil Cluff
Streaming Specialist,
Mux

Video: Monetization with Manifest Manipulation

Posted on 3rd June 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Manipulating the manifest of streamed video allows localisation of adverts with the option of per-client customisation. This results in better monetisation but also a better way to deal with blackouts and other regulatory or legal restrictions.

Using the fact that most streamed video is delivered by using a playlist which is simply a text file which lists the locations of the many files which contain the video, we see that you could deliver different playlists to clients in different locations – detected via geolocating the IP address. Similarly different ads can be delivered depending on the type of client requesting – phone, tablet, computer etc.

Here, Imagine’s Yuval Fisher starts by reminding us how online streaming typically works using HLS as an example. He then leads us through the possibilities of manifest manipulation. One interesting idea is using this to remove hardware delivering cost savings using the same infrastructure to deliver to both the internet and broadcast. Yuval finshes up with a list of “Dos and Don’ts” to explain the best way to achieve the playlist manipulation.

Sarah Foss rounds off the presentation explaining how manifest manipulation sits at the centre of the rest of the ad-delivery system.

Watch now!

Speaker

	Yuval Fisher CTO, Distribution Imagine Communications.
	Sarah Foss Former SVP & GM, Ad Tech, Imagine Communications.

Video: Who is Watching? The Challenge of Digital TV Measurement

Posted on 17th December 2018 by Russell Trafford-Jones

With the rapid increase in video-on-demand (VoD) viewing, over-the-top services such as Netflix and mobile TV, working out who watches TV – and when and where – has become a complicated business. Can the TV industry keep up with the changes and the ever-growing need to measure TV viewing habits across devices, platforms and other new ways to watch?

This panel from the RTS, includes Justin Sampson from BARB talking about how they’re capturing iPlayer views which are increasingly important, particularly has sometimes a TV programmes are available on OTT before linear transmission. But there is still work to do capturing views on Netflix, Youtube, Amazon and other services.

In the same vein, Rich Astley, Finecast CPO, pointed out there is a lot of advertisement viewing which is also uncaptured.

Sky Media’s MD John Lister gives his opinions including discussing the strong ability of linear TV to build brands which, clearly, is more important than individual advert spots.

Sarah Rose from Channel 4 discussed the continued importance of overnight ratings which are still highly correlated to having a hit on your hands.

Watch the whole thing to find out much more, hosted by Kate Bulkley

Speakers

	Matt Hill Research and Planning Director, Thinkbox
	Rich Astley Chief Product Officer, Finecast
	John Litster Managing Director, Sky Media
	Sarah Rose Chief Consumer & Strategy Officer, Channel 4
	Justin Sampson CEO, Barb
	Kate Bulkley Moderator Journalist

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