Irdeto brings Server Side Ad Insertion to the market to provide smooth TV-like experience and maximize ad revenue

The solution is available to OTT providers that are looking to commercialize their live streaming channels or expand from their Client Side Ad Insertion (CSAI) solution, maximizing ad inventory value

AMSTERDAM – January 19, 2022 – Irdeto, the world leader in digital platform cybersecurity, today announces the launch of Irdeto Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI). This new solution maximizes addressable live ad inventory of OTT video at scale while delivering a seamless ‘TV-like’ viewing experience. It integrates with any ad server or an existing CSAI solution to deliver targeted and personalized ads during live events and on linear channels. The solution has been successfully brought to the market with the first customer fully operational, delivering targeted ads at scale to its online video subscribers across all connected platforms.

Irdeto SSAI creates an individualized media stream for segments of viewers to get personalized and targeted advertisements. This is done by modifying the original streaming manifest (the set of instructions for how the video player locates and plays video files), for each viewer. Each ad decision is based on the viewer’s information and profile, such as past viewing history, demographics, and geographical location, which is then matched to an ad in the ad server which is targeted to a viewer audience with a similar profile. When an ad profile is detected by Irdeto SSAI, the selected ad is then added into the content stream before it reaches the viewer’s playback device.

Because the ads are added into the live stream in the network, latency and buffering are eliminated and continuous high video quality is ensured between the ad and content, providing a smooth TV-like viewing experience. In addition, the impact of ad blocking is minimized and SSAI eliminates timeouts and black screens during ad playback caused by device fragmentation. These result in Irdeto’s SSAI customers maximizing their addressable live ad inventory at scale and the OTT service providers being able to leverage existing ad servers and CSAI infrastructure or build the infrastructure from scratch. Irdeto’s broad partner eco-system and vendor agnostic outlook allows customers the freedom to work with their vendors of choice.

Within Irdeto SSAI is a tracking manager that monitors ads that are stitched into a stream. The tracking manager monitors aspects of the ad (e.g., impressions, errors and quartile completion) which will assist in identifying issues within the system and tracking campaigns through an integrated ad server.

Shane McCarthy, COO of Video Entertainment at Irdeto, said: “For decades advertising has been the backbone of live television. 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. Ultimately, it’s about listening to our customers and delivering solutions that can empower them,” McCarthy continues.

For more information about Irdeto Service Side Ad Insertion, visit: https://irdeto.com/video-entertainment/server-side-ad-insertion-ssai.