OKAST enables FAST creation and distribution via a modular cloud solution called OKAST Channels that includes programming, playout, transcoding, distribution, and advertising monetisation services. The company says it has deployed over 500 OTT platforms and FAST channels. Broadpeak provides video delivery components for content providers and network operators deploying video streaming services, including operator CDNs. The company’s advanced video API cloud platform, broadpeak.io, offers as-a-service solutions for dynamic ad insertion, linear virtual channel creation, and content personalisation. The companies are now integrating OKAST Channels and broadpeak.io.

The vendors say their partnership results in an advanced FAST offer that enables publishers to differentiate themselves in the market to achieve greater audience engagement. The technology helps content owners better monetise their inventory, the companies claim. The dynamic adaptation of channel content is key to success, and this is achieved thanks to Broadpeak’s Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) solution (available on broadpeak.io SaaS) in combination with AI. The line-up of channels is customised to end user tastes.

The content line-up is also changed using dynamic programme replacement in order to meet the business rules associated with a diverse distribution marketplace. As the vendors explain, channel distribution to multiple connected TV platforms and applications, all with their own specific requirements, generates very high costs for publishers and high management complexity for channel editors. So, this solution uses ‘variant channels’ where the same video stream is adapted to the different format, language, regulation, cultural, business and advertising rules of distribution platforms, reducing distribution and editorial management costs.

Before, the original channel programme line-up had to be changed to suit each different CTV platform carrying FAST channels – so four CTV platforms meant four versions of the channel (to align with different language, regulation, business, etc. rules). OKAST and Broadpeak have swapped this approach for one that uses rules-based programme replacement (using server-side content insertion). This means that only one version of the original programme line-up is needed, plus SSAI-enabled adaptations on a per-distribution platform basis. This reduces costs and makes wider distribution economic.

The final value-add from the OKAST/Broadpeak integration is the use of Broadpeak’s Advanced CDN solution to distribute the FAST channels to Pay TV operators. “Integration of FAST channels into operator offerings means they reach a new, very large audience in addition to that of the usual CTV platforms.”

Editor’s comment

FAST channels still attract only modest viewing (as a total of all viewing) but are a welcome addition to the TV landscape, complementing standard linear TV programming as they often provide genre-focused content collections (on a linear schedule) or allow super-fans to binge the same show 24/7. Integration of the best FAST channels into Pay TV line-ups seems a natural move, and we also expect to see these appearing more in broadcaster streaming services where third-party content is welcomed, given that many broadcasters want their BVOD to become a digital destination in its own right rather than ‘just’ a catch-up service for their own broadcast channels. Seven Network in Australia is one of those pioneering the ‘third-party FAST inside BVOD’ model, and gave details about that at Connected TV World Summit in March.

The rapid growth of streaming TV consumption makes it imperative that networks, studios and MVPDs have a ‘grown up’ connected TV offering – one that allows them to compete for every eyeball and ad dollar that migrates into the premium digital video environment. This means:

• Holding onto audiences, and attracting new viewers, by ensuring a consumer-friendly ad experience with modest ad loads, frequency capping and relevant ads.
• Enabling ad insertion (and targeting) at huge scale with total reliability, so that mega-events including sport and breaking news can be fully monetized.
• Maximizing the value of inventory by carefully managing direct sales with multiple programmatic demand sources.
• Effectively using audience data to achieve better targeting and a personalized ad viewing experience, even in a cookie-less world.

The pandemic accelerated all digital behaviours, including TV viewing. Mass-scale connected TV was tomorrow’s opportunity and challenge, but tomorrow arrived early. Join us live to hear how networks, studios and distributors can rethink the ad-supported TV model and ready themselves for connected TV primetime.

Register here.

This webcast explores:

• What a holistic ad performance and revenue strategy looks like, and how you find the sweet spot where ‘audience + avails = best possible yield outcome’, and how you avoid the one extra ad that loses you money, as viewers ‘tune out’.
• The potential for greater integration and synergies between SSAI and audience data and targeting capabilities –and how this could be implemented.
• How to manage ad frequency in a multi ad server (direct, programmatic, affiliate) environment and so ensure ad repetition does not degrade the ‘premium’ TV experience.
• The next steps in dynamic ad insertion, including the benefits of server-side ad insertion and client-side ad insertion, and how these can be used successfully in a hybrid model.
• The potential for a multi-DAI vendor strategy (similar to multi-CDN strategies) and how this could influence ad delivery performance and costs.
• How to manage multiple inventory owners within the same video session using an understanding of who has the ‘right to sell’, plus the ad routing and decisioning processes that support sales business rules.
• The special considerations when streaming ad-supported content into MVPD set-top boxes.
• How to monitor and diagnose the causes of ad errors, and so increase ad delivery reliability.
• How organizations are managing ad insertion for very large scale events, including the implications for ad insertion infrastructure

Iredeto says the technology is “vendor agnostic” and can be incorporated into a pre-established advertising ecosystem with vendors of the customer’s choice, or delivered as a full end-to-end solution. Within the SSAI there is also a tracking manager that monitors aspects of ads stitched into a stream (such as impressions, errors and quartile completion) and helps identify any issues within the system. The first, unnamed customer for the new technology is fully operational.

The SSAI detects SCTE35 markers in a broadcast feed – inserted by the stream creator – to know when an ad break is coming and its duration. It then requests ads from the ad server which are selected based on the individual viewer’s profile, including information on past viewing history, demographics, and geographical location. Once the ads are chosen, Irdeto SSAI manipulates the manifests of the stream (the set of instructions for how the video player locates and plays video files) to playout the audio and video segments from the selected ads, stitching ads directly into the same stream as the content. The technology then returns the stream to its original manifests after the ad break has finished, until the next ad break is indicated by SCTE35 markers.

The company argues that this approach to ad insertion eliminates the latency and buffering associated with other ad insertion technologies. Irdeto also says that the impact of ad blocking is minimised as a result of ads being stitched directly into the stream, and the SSAI will prevent timeouts and black screen during ad playback caused by device fragmentation.

Shane McCarthy, COO of Video Entertainment at Irdeto, says: “For decades advertising has been the backbone of live television. As the consumer viewing behaviours rapidly shift towards streaming video platforms, it is only natural for us to seek new innovative solutions to empower our customers. With this new solution we empower streaming platforms to explore new revenue streams by maximising the value of their premium OTT ad inventory.”

LeoTerra – an SSAI fraud scheme – falsified 20.5 million unique CTV devices per day during the period – over 20x more than the equivalent figure for the previous year and 40x more than the average figure for the three months leading up to October. CelloTerra – a mobile fraud scheme which was uncovered by DV in March 2020 – has also tripled its volume of fraudulent CTV impressions in the quarter. Shockingly, DoubleVerify reports that 18% of unprotected CTV ads traded programmatically during the period were actually invalid traffic or fraud.

DV’s Fraud Lab leverages a team of data scientists, mathematicians and analysts working in cyber-fraud prevention, and has previously uncovered new forms of fraud, pinpointing the sites, apps and devices responsible for fraudulent activity.

Another report published last year by DoubleVerify found a dramatic shift in the tactics deployed by scammers. Analysing over a trillion impressions across 80 markets from May 2020 to April 2021, DoubleVerify noted a 44% drop in bot scams as fraudsters began turning to data center traffic and carrying out “spoofing” scams on a larger scale. These latter fraud schemes work by using server-side ad insertion to create fake CTV inventory across a large number of devices, apps and IP addresses. The ad exchange is unable to differentiate between legitimate users and signals from ad scammers and therefore sells impressions to both, allowing scammers to collect revenues from advertisers. DoubleVerify reports that 36% of all fraud in the above mentioned period was conducted this way.

Mark Zagorski, CEO at DoubleVerify said, “As advertisers shift budgets to CTV inventory and platforms, the need to understand performance and measurability across the channel is now more important than ever. Given the growing complexity of these schemes — with fraudsters continuously employing new techniques, the entities representing or selling fraudulent inventory may not be directly responsible or even understand that fraud is taking place.”

Alongside other ad verification companies Human and Oracle Moat, DoubleVerify previously helped shut down similar multimillion-dollar fraud schemes called ParrotTerra, StreamScam and ICEBUCKET. In April of last year, Human uncovered “Pareto” – a bot scheme infecting a million Android devices which artificially simulated Smart TV ad impressions and impressions on other devices.

A 2020 survey of 230 U.S. industry experts conducted by Integral Ad Science – an ad tech and verification company – found that 26% believe CTV is more vulnerable to ad fraud than other media. 38% of respondents were media agencies, 24% were publishers, and another 8% advertisers.