Introduction
The concept of Server Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) has recently become a hot topic with publishers and technology providers alike. This is primarily driven by the growth of VOD consumption and the limitations that both Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) and Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI) impose on VOD streams. This article is intended to provide an overview of SGAI, the different solutions, and their relative values. Publishers with significant VOD libraries should be looking at SGAI today to understand the value it brings and the considerations involved in choosing the right solution.
What is SGAI
SGAI was developed to address a key shortcoming of SSAI for VOD delivery and to add some additional control for FAST channels. For this discussion, we will focus on VOD streams where SGAI offers the “just-in-time” ad decision timing of CSAI combined with the benefits of SSAI (adaptive bitrate (ABR) ad segments, seamless transition between content/advertising and defense against ad blockers).
One of the biggest shortcomings of SSAI in a VOD context is the requirement to decision and insert all of the advertisements for a stream prior to playback beginning (we discuss this at length here). Ultimately, this process leads to lower revenue generation and potential significant waste of technical costs. SGAI enables ad decisions to be made after playback begins which has a number of positive effects enabling SGAI to have a clear advantage over both SSAI and CSAI:
Video start times can be reduced compared to SSAI.
Only ads that are about to be played are decisioned/inserted - increasing render rate and competition.
SGAI uses ABR segments for the ads which delivers a higher quality viewing experience.
SGAI intelligence is at the server and therefore does not require significant client software maintenance.
SGAI can more easily be made to deliver “frame accurate” ad insertion.
SGAI will deliver higher fill rates (ad blockers can’t block SGAI).
In essence, SGAI brings many of the upsides of using CSAI without the downsides.
SGAI Solutions
There are currently two well-known client-based SGAI solutions: HLS-Interstitials (HLSI) and DASH X-Link/MPD (DASHX) Insert. These solutions operate in similar ways. They both utilize two video players, they both require that the publisher’s player infrastructure supports the technology (i.e. new video player in their apps/devices) and they both require support from the ad stitcher being used. For example, an OEM’s older TV/hardware segment will unlikely be able to support these technologies. Furthermore, ad stitchers are just now rolling out support for HLSI and none are fully supporting DASHX yet.
Beyond this, it’s important to understand that these solutions are stream protocol specific, so if a publisher distributes in both DASH and HLS, even if they have a single ad stitcher, they will need to support multiple monetization approaches to cover their entire ecosystem. This may be simply HLSI and DASHX or may be more complicated if there are older players involved. In that case, a publisher would potentially be running four approaches: standard HLS, standard DASH, HLSI and DASHX. As the technology further develops, client-based SGAI solutions make sense for publishers who may have the ability and desire to continually invest resources in maintaining player capabilities across a wide variety of devices and player types.
Penthera’s 2nd Look offers a cloud-based alternative SGAI solution that can streamline operations and provide publishers with a single solution across HLS and DASH distribution. 2nd Look is agnostic to player type, version, and SSAI vendor. As a result, ongoing operational support and reporting are consolidated into a single solution.
Conclusion
Publishers for whom VOD is a large or growing component of their business should be looking to implement SGAI. The revenue generation benefits are significant and SGAI can help to normalize inventory across both VOD and FAST distribution points.
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