AMSTERDAM—Irdeto has launched its Irdeto Server Side Ad Insertion platform, which maximizes the addressable live ad inventory of OTT video at scale while delivering a seamless TV-like viewer experience, the company said today.
The solution integrates with any ad server or an existing CSAI (client-side ad insertion) solution to deliver targeted, personalized ads during live events and on linear channels. While Irdeto declined to identify its first customer, the company said the solution has already been brought to market and is being used to deliver targeted ads at scale to online video subscribers using connected platforms.
“For decades advertising has been the backbone of live television," said Shane McCarthy, chief operating officer of video entertainment at Irdeto. "As the consumer viewing behaviors rapidly shift towards streaming video platforms, it is only natural for us to seek new innovative solutions to empower our customers. We're proud to be rolling out this new solution to provide a TV-like ad viewing experience on a video streaming platform, which helps streaming services overcome the current challenges of latency, device fragmentation and ad blocking of other ad insertion technologies,”
“With this new solution we empower streaming platforms to explore new revenue streams by maximizing the value of their premium OTT ad inventory," he continued. "Ultimately, it's about listening to our customers and delivering solutions that can empower them.”
The new solution creates an individualized media stream for segments of viewers to personalize and target ads. To do so, the original streaming manifest is modified for each viewer. Each ad decision is based on the viewer’s information and profile, such as past viewing history, demographics and geographical location. The data is matched to an ad on the ad server, which is targeted to a viewer audience with a similar profile, the company said.
When the Irdeto SSAI detects an ad profile, the selected ad is added into the content stream before it reaches the viewer’s playback device, it said.
Adding ads into the live stream in the network eliminates latency and buffering and ensures continuously high video quality when comparing that of program content and ads to offer viewers a smooth TV-like viewing experience, it said.
Ad blocking is minimized, and SSAI eliminates timeouts and black screens during ad playback due to device fragmentation.
Irdeto’s SSAI users can maximize their addressable live ad inventory at scale, and OTT service providers can leverage existing ad servers and CSAI infrastructure or build infrastructure from scratch. The company’s broad partner eco-system and vendor agnostic outlook allows customers the freedom to work with their vendors of choice, Irdeto said.
A tracking manager in the Irdeto SSAI platform monitors ads that are stitched into a stream. The manager tracks various aspects of the ad, such as impressions, errors and quartile completion, it said.
More information is available on the company’s website.
