CESSON-SEVIGNE, France—Chunghwa Telecom, the leading telecommunications operator in Taiwan, has selected Broadpeak to provide solutions for its streaming service Hami Video.

As part of the agreement, the telco is using Broadpeak’s server-side-ad-insertion (SSAI) solution via the broadpeak.io SaaS platform.

The two companies reported that the advanced dynamic ad insertion solution would improve viewing experiences and increase ad revenue from the live basketball matches and associated content offered by Chunghwa’s premium sports streaming channel.

Chunghwa Telecom serves over 3 million video streaming subscribers, offering a broad array of live and on-demand content, including premium international sports. With continued rights investments in premier live sports content, the operator required new and enhanced ad insertion capabilities so that it could better monetize its growing OTT service, Hami Video and boost ad revenues.

Jacques Le Mancq, president and CEO of Broadpeak, explained that “Chunghwa Telecom is innovation-led and champions exceptional subscriber experiences. Market leaders like Chunghwa set a pioneering example of how operators can elevate their monetization toolkit while bringing the best live sports and entertainment to rapidly-growing audiences. We’re proud to support Chunghwa as it embarks on new periods of growth as the ultimate streaming platform for Taiwanese viewers.”

The two companies reported that Broadpeak’s solutions are designed to be rapidly deployed and that Broadpeak enabled the service to go live within weeks with a flexible, easy-to-use SaaS solution.

Alongside fast time-to-market, the cloud-based solution provided Chungwha Telecom with effortless third-party integration via API-driven architecture, seamless interoperability within existing CDN and ad-tech environments. Broadpeak also implemented AI-driven tools to automatically detect ad breaks and insert the relevant SCTE-35 markers within video streams.

More information is available at www.broadpeak.tv.

The demand for live sports streaming is skyrocketing as more high-profile events become available exclusively on streaming platforms. eMarketer predicts that in 2025, approximately 114 million people in the U.S. will watch sports on digital platforms compared with 82 million on pay TV, making the shift toward streaming undeniable.

The surge in live sports streaming viewership creates an urgent need for scalable cloud infrastructure that can handle unpredictable spikes in audience numbers while ensuring outstanding video quality with ultra-low latency and uninterrupted reliability. Several innovations in AI, cloud and server-side ad insertion (SSAI) are shaping the future of live sports streaming.

Overcoming the Biggest Hurdles in Live Sports Streaming
Video service providers face key challenges when streaming live sports events.

To start, scaling live events is no easy task. The biggest challenge comes just minutes before kickoff, when millions of viewers flood the streaming platform simultaneously, placing massive strain on delivery infrastructure. To maintain seamless video delivery, service providers must deploy capacity reservations and intelligent autoscaling mechanisms that dynamically adapt to surging traffic.

Ensuring a resilient streaming architecture is also critical for success. Failure is not an option, especially for premium live events where any cloud region, CDN or source failure must be mitigated instantly to prevent service disruption.

Meanwhile, viewer expectations are evolving — full HD with HDR is now the standard, low latency is nonnegotiable and features like personalized real-time stats, multi-camera angles and gamification are becoming essential for maintaining viewer engagement, particularly among younger audiences.

Furthermore, monetization is key for service providers, but it’s fraught with challenges. Live sports inventory commands the highest ad dollars, but the ad loads for premium sports events are already near saturation. With live sports streaming on the rise, video service providers need ad monetization strategies to stay ahead.

The Evolution of Low-Latency Streaming
Reducing latency remains a top priority for service providers since even a few seconds of delay can disrupt viewer engagement. Viewers expect real-time action when they are watching a game-winning goal, and new applications such as live polls and in-game bets demand ultra-low or no latency.

While low-latency DASH and HLS have yet to see widespread commercial adoption, advancements in DASH-IF, MPEG DASH L3D (Low Latency Low Delay) and QUIC are set to drive the next evolution of ultra-low latency streaming. The key lies in achieving the same total cost of ownership and capabilities — such as SSAI and high-quality video — as standard latency streaming. As the streaming ecosystem evolves to support these emerging standards, low latency will unlock new opportunities for interactivity, engagement and monetization in the live sports environment.

AI’s Role in Enhancing Live Sports Streaming
Improving efficiency is also a key focus for live sports streaming providers. AI innovations are transforming live sports streaming by optimizing workflows and enhancing viewer experiences. For instance, AI-driven encoding algorithms are helping reduce CPU demands while enabling video service providers to deliver high-quality video. By dynamically adjusting frame rates based on content complexity, these intelligent encoding techniques can significantly cut resource consumption, enabling more sustainable and cost-effective video streaming.

AI is also playing a crucial role in automating content processing and personalization. Video service providers are trialing generative AI to automatically generate closed captions, translate commentary into multiple languages and extract key metadata, such as highlights or ad markers, from live streams.

These capabilities streamline the video pipeline and open new opportunities for real-time personalization, allowing viewers to customize their sports streaming experience. As broadcasters and streaming providers test these AI-driven innovations in proof-of-concept trials, widespread adoption is expected in the near future, marking a monumental shift toward optimized live streaming workflows.

Cloud Infrastructure is Essential for Streaming Live Sports at Scale
Another key objective for service providers is delivering live sports streaming at scale, and the cloud is indispensable in achieving this. Utilizing the cloud, service providers can scale live sports events rapidly, handling massive traffic surges without compromising video quality or reliability.

A prime example is when Peacock exclusively streamed an NFL playoff game in January 2024, marking a milestone in streaming history. The game reached tens of millions of viewers, accounting for 30% of all U.S. internet traffic at its peak. This unprecedented demand highlighted the cloud’s ability to scale instantly, absorbing a surge of viewers just before kickoff while maintaining exceptional video quality.

Yet, ensuring a seamless live streaming experience requires more than simply leveraging the cloud — it demands a highly resilient infrastructure. Video service providers must deploy their applications across multiple cloud regions with geo-synchronization, ensuring uninterrupted service even in the event of localized failures. Additionally, a multi-CDN strategy combined with intelligent load balancing is key to distributing traffic efficiently, strengthening reliability and reducing the risk of congestion or downtime.

The cloud is superior to traditional on-premises setups from a cost perspective. Hosting an event like an NFL playoff game on-premises would require massive investments in hardware, infrastructure and ongoing maintenance — resources that might only be fully utilized for a single high-profile event. In contrast, the cloud provides on-demand scalability, allowing service providers to scale up CPU resources during peak moments and scale down immediately afterward, making it a far more cost-effective solution.

In-Stream Ads are Boosting Monetization for Live Streaming
In the live sports streaming market, service providers are constantly seeking new ways to optimize monetization. The cost of acquiring sports streaming rights has escalated significantly in recent years. Rethink Research predicts that sports media rights revenues for the top 16 global leagues will grow to $68.8 billion in 2028.

To recoup the high costs of sports rights, improve viewer engagement and unlock new revenue streams, service providers are embracing new ad formats such as in-stream advertising. In-stream advertising with split-screen formats is a perfect match for sports streaming — it’s less intrusive than full-screen ads, impression based and implemented server-side, making it a win-win for advertisers and publishers. The split-screen ads not only preserve viewer engagement, they also amplify brand awareness and maximize monetization opportunities for service providers.

Conclusion
Streaming high-profile live sports events at scale while delivering an outstanding quality of experience requires a well-designed, resilient cloud-based architecture. There is no doubt that low latency and personalized viewing experiences will become even more important in the coming years.

As the cost of sports rights rises, service providers will continue to embrace new monetization strategies. Innovative ad formats such as in-stream advertising will play a crucial role in enhancing viewer engagement and driving stronger returns on investment.

For many years, consumers avoided watching advertisements by paying for ad-free subscription-video-on-demand services. However, this trend has shifted. Research from the Video Advertising Bureau reveals that 66% of Americans that are between the ages of 18 to 34 now prefer streaming video content with commercials over ad-free subscriptions. The primary reasons cited are the cost benefits and the perceived value exchange.

Targeted advertising is reshaping the video streaming industry, enhancing viewer engagement and increasing revenue for video service providers. Advancements in video streaming platforms, server-side ad insertion (SSAI) and server-guided ad insertion (SGAI) technology, and data analysis are driving this shift, enabling the integration of ad content tailored to individual viewer interests.

The Shift to Personalized Ad Campaigns
The free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) and advertising video on demand (AVOD) markets are growing rapidly, with global FAST revenues expected to reach $18 billion by 2028. There are a few key reasons for the transformation to video streaming services with personalized advertising.

Viewer demands are evolving. According to Adweek, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Customizing ads to match user interests enhances the overall experience, making ads feel more engaging and less obtrusive.

For streaming service providers, incorporating targeted ads can significantly boost revenue. Ad-supported tiers have been shown to capture higher ARPU than subscription-based models. In today’s ultra-competitive video streaming landscape, any opportunity for service providers to differentiate their offering and boost revenue is a significant advantage. This additional income can be used to invest in better content, thus increasing demand and driving up CPMs, further improving the monetization and quality of service.

Furthermore, improvements in server-side ad insertion and data analysis have made it easier to seamlessly integrate relevant ads into streaming content without disrupting the viewing experience. A common challenge with FAST and AVOD services is that each platform individually collects data, consolidates it and then shares it with ad tech platforms on a daily basis.

This data is uploaded into data lakes and analyzed to generate actionable insights through an omnichannel approach. The resulting insights can then be used to optimize the user experience and journey. This might involve updating campaign-related metrics such as pacing, frequency caps or spacing rules. In some cases, additional programmatic purchases are needed to acquire more inventory on adjacent platforms.

In the era where instant satisfaction and fan engagement are the expected norm, the need for actionable data in near real time is crucial. By deploying a combination of technologies for streaming, such as SSAI and more traditional approaches based on SCTE, data can be provided in a matter of seconds.

Universal Approaches to Targeted Advertising
SSAI technology seamlessly incorporates personalized ads into live stream content, stitching ads directly into the stream. By utilizing user data such as preferences, demographics, and behavior, relevant ads can be inserted in real time – enhancing viewer satisfaction, reducing ad fatigue, and increasing ad effectiveness and revenue for service providers.

SGAI is an ad insertion method that uses predefined markers called resolution points, such as HLS interstitials and DASH media presentation insertion events, in primary content such as video streams. These markers serve as placeholders for seamless ad insertion. With this approach, the content provider’s service oversees ad insertion, ensuring ads are delivered consistently and reliably across different devices and platforms.

When a viewer starts playback, the streaming manifest includes info about the resolution points. The video player requests additional content from the provider as needed, allowing for dynamic, personalized ad insertion without interruptions. SGAI balances personalized ad experiences with efficient resource usage, centralizing ad control to enhance performance, reduce latency, and support content caching. While SGAI is a more advanced and scalable solution for delivering personalized ads, there are drawbacks with this approach, namely that it requires more complex client player features, processing and development. This makes the roll out of SGAI difficult with legacy players, as many client players have insufficient processing to support SGAI.

Frequency capping is an ad management strategy that prevents viewers from being overwhelmed by repetitive ads. By customizing ad exposure based on user interactions, service providers can maintain a balanced and enjoyable viewing experience. This technique prevents ad oversaturation, keeps viewers engaged, and fosters a positive perception of personalized ads, ultimately leading to higher ad retention rates.

Advertising storytelling uses asset rotation rules and enhances the effectiveness of targeted ads by presenting them in a specific sequence. The goal is to create a cohesive narrative or message about a brand or product, resulting in a memorable and personalized ad experience. This approach improves viewer recall and strengthens connections with the advertised products or services.

The Next Frontier: In-Stream Advertising
Given the popularity of AVOD and FAST services, there is a pressing demand for innovative monetization approaches. A new targeted ad technique called in-stream advertising is revolutionizing video streaming monetization, especially for live use cases. In-stream advertising with new split-screen ad formats creates a new premium inventory during live programming events, enabling advertisers to reach viewers without disrupting the viewing experience and brands, agencies and publishers to achieve better monetization.

With in-stream advertising, service providers can leverage SSAI to offer new addressable ad formats such as double-box and dynamic L-bars. These split-screen ads can be strategically placed at high- and low-action moments of live events, either through manual operation or by automated triggering from external data feeds. Dynamically integrating split-screen inventory within live programming not only amplifies brand awareness but also maximizes monetization opportunities for live events, including sports.

The introduction of fresh ad formats and in-content advertising are driving a rise in CPMs of around 25% for some format inventory types.

Conclusion
To stay competitive in the rapidly growing video streaming market, targeted advertising is more crucial than ever. Video service providers need technology providers to support more than just SSAI and less intrusive ad formats with in-stream advertising to maximize their revenues.

With a SaaS solution for targeted advertising, video service providers can achieve unparalleled scalability, take advantage of real-time data processing and leverage advanced machine learning to tailor advertising messages with unprecedented precision.

We are still some way from an all-streaming future but there is plenty of evidence that preparations for this outcome are accelerating, from sharpened regulatory interest in prominence on connected TVs, to a UK over-60s advocacy group demanding late broadcast switch-off dates rather than early ones. 

For broadcasters, larger BVOD catalogues, closer integration of FAST with BVOD, streaming-first windows for top drama, and next-generation free-to-air platforms all fit with a strategy to stream more.

'Broadcast Scale'
The challenge for commercial broadcasters is to rapidly carry their large broadcast linear audiences and their share of advertising revenue into an all-streaming world.  If they succeed on point one they have the chance to excel at point two because broadcasters will have a unique selling point in the streaming environment: broadcast scale with mass reach addressability.

Commercial broadcasters with aggressive digital strategies will be better placed to compete against the growing collection of global SVOD services offering ad-supported tiers, as well as against YouTube, or even TikTok. And ad-tech stacks are ready to support streaming acceleration, with server-side ad insertion (SSAI) one of the foundational technologies.

SSAI supports addressable TV ambitions at super-scale, whether for live or VOD, with the broadcast-standard, frame-accurate ad insertion that will protect the user and advertising experience regardless of the end device.

End devices are relevant here. Broadcasters will need to serve a multitude of Smart TVs including budget displays. The Smart TV OS market is fragmented, with no signs of consolidation. The next two decades will also see the growth of the connected car entertainment market, with its own entertainment OS hinterland.

SSAI removes complexity from device reach, and broadcasters will not have to worry about hardware capabilities. If their streaming app works on the platform/OS in question, SSAI will work seamlessly.

Future for Addressable Advertising
Client-side ad insertion could be an innovation drag in these circumstances, especially when you hit a long tail of devices that add only small incremental audiences in return for client-side development efforts. Recent work in server-side tracking of ad views would even remove reliance on client-side SDKs for audience measurement when using SSAI.

Server-side ad insertion is the future for addressable advertising in VOD, even if legacy client-side ad insertion has historically served broadcasters well enough. SSAI removes buffering and transitions that are still evident today, and brings consistency regardless of the platform served or broadband connection. 

SSAI is the gold standard—and "born digital" broadcaster rivals, coming late to the ads market, are adopting it.

Support for Interstitials in HLS and XLink in DASH is an important development for SSAI in the on-demand space. This means ad breaks can be resolved when the viewer reaches an ad break, rather than at the start of a VOD viewing session. The impact will be reduced start-up times and streamlined inventory and audience planning.

In linear and live television, SSAI has long trumped client-side solutions. The challenge here on the road to all-streaming is audience sizes, not just for sport but increasingly for hit entertainment shows.

A key to success is SSAI with smart integration into the programmatic advertising ecosystem so that ad requests from millions of concurrent viewers can be processed between ad servers, SSPs and DSPs at such speed that ad calls never ‘time-out’. Time-outs leave a media owner with a choice of showing viewers a UX-destroying ‘Your programme will resume shortly’ message, or falling back on in-house ads that earn them nothing, or giving up on programmatic break opportunities.

Media buyers like to trade programmatically, and more digital will mean more programmatic, so this is not a luxury but a must-have moving forwards. Pre-fetch is an innovation that makes SSAI more scalable with programmatic, by spreading out the ad calls ahead of an ad break, and it can also be applied to direct sold breaks. 

All the same SSAI benefits can be applied to broadcaster FAST channels. Here, the challenge is ensuring a highly automated streaming and SSAI infrastructure that keeps the incremental cost of a new FAST channel very low, while ensuring full monetization.

SSAI will be central to the successful migration of commercial broadcasting to all-streaming, however long that takes. It gives broadcasters the chance to fully monetize streaming audiences and offer buyers the mass reach addressability they want.

The OTT and CTV landscape has gone through a lot of changes during the last few years, and there has been a particularly significant growth in supply.   

According to the recent figures by Pixalate, the industry has seen a 232% rise in the number of OTT apps supporting programmatic. Also, there's been an increase in ad volume: between Q1 2019 and Q4 2019, the number of OTT/CTV ad impressions increased 4.3 fold, or by 330%. 

The figures look impressive, and they are expected to only increase, partially due to the rising CTV and OTT overall viewership during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, based on Nielsen estimations for January, CTV usage in the U.S. alone accounted for 12.5 billion hours monthly. Shortly after the lockdown began, total hours spent with CTV devices were up 81%, equating to nearly 4 billion hours of CTV use per week.

What else is drawing attention is the growing importance of SSAI—Server-side ad integration technology. Back to Pixalate's report, in Q1 2020, 40% of all programmatic OTT/CTV was delivered via SSAI. 

Yet, along with the interest, buyers and sellers across ad tech, look at SSAI technology with caution. Being one of the most crucial innovations since 2017 that has allowed OTT video to become a viable industry, SSAI, at the same time, is fraught with the risk of ad fraud. 

But, before taking a closer look at issues SSAI brings in, let's first figure out what makes it so attractive.

USING SSAI ACROSS THE CTV LANDSCAPE

Unlike traditional video ad serving, where ad requests originate on the client-side and ad content is delivered separately via a third-party ad server, SSAI allows the delivery of ads and the video content in a stitched stream.

SSAI is common for OTT/CTV video advertising. With the growth of personalization and ad insertion opportunities, SSAI has become a resolution for CTV and OTT publishers. Specifically, it helps to eliminate video latency and significantly improve the viewer experience, which is essential for increasingly sophisticated audiences. 

WHAT SSAI BRINGS TO THE TABLE

SSAI was originally created to help publishers bypass ad-blocking measures and provide users with a better viewer experience, eliminating any latency issues and buffering. Though, these are not the only benefits SSAI implementation brings to the table. The other advancements are: 

• Transparency: It's one of the core benefits to the industry, bringing trust to a formerly opaque way of transaction. This is where SSAI provides publishers with metrics and insights into the supply chain, and ensures transparency. 
• Measurement: SSAI can take care of most of the data management and measurement attribution across OTT and CTV environments, which is essential for platforms like Roku or PlayStation. Besides, with SSAI, publishers don't need to get too sophisticated with client-side code. 
• Fraud analysis: So far, there's still no one-size-fits-all solution, but efforts made by the ad tech flagmen allow to identify untrustworthy servers, as well as whitelist and blacklist the activities more efficiently. 

THE DARK SIDE OF SSAI

On the other hand, SSAI integrations are extremely sensitive to ad fraud schemes. Moreover, as the ad spends shift to OTT and CTV channels, SSAI gets exploited on a large scale. Partially, it's due to the tendency to whitelist all SSAI servers. This security gap in SSAI allows fraudsters to spoof the user request by faking all the associated HTTP header fields, and other actions and interactions with ads.

There are also some risk factors across the CTV and OTT landscape in general, not just related to SSAI. Recently the ad tech industry has witnessed two OTT cases in point: Monarch and DiCaprio. 

Put briefly, DiCaprio scheme spoofed ad requests, imitating real users interaction with an app (accessing it via real users devices). This resulted in a violation of 114 unique Roku store URLs, 98 unique app Bundle IDs and at least 134 unique app names.

While the DiCaprio scheme was implemented mainly through users' mobile devices, the more recent case, Monarch, performed spoofing on actual OTT/CTV devices and apps.

These cases have different mechanisms behind them, but both show how easily scammers can abuse security loopholes that exist in OTT and CTV. 

Apparently, the premium brands like Lexus, Uber, Chipotle and others like them, are the main target of fraudsters. And, well, they do that through the exploitation of SSAI.

COMBATING INVALID SSAI TRANSACTIONS

For every action, there is a reaction. This is where the vocal supporters of high ad tech standards in the industry come in. 

For instance, IAB Tech Lab works closely with the Advanced TV committee to craft the guidelines for improving measurement in SSAI and, more broadly, across OTT/CTV advertising.

Also, the work towards accreditation of SSAI measurement metrics is under way. These metrics include the OTT and CTV environment, display tracked ads and impressions, plus SIVT detection and filtration across display and video traffic within the desktop and mobile environments.

Besides, there are the critical points implemented by Pixalate—the opportunity to evaluate both individual IP addresses and the overall reputation of the proxy without going "all-in" (whitelist) or "all-out" (blacklist) on proxy servers. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Similar to a double-edge sword, SSAI can both power up CTV and OTT publishers with a new and more profitable way of ad serving, and at the same time, leave space for fraudulent activities.

The good news is that technologies aimed to fight ad fraud also evolve. By working together on standards, guidelines and metrics, as well as their further adoption, the ad tech industry will find ways to go through and stay ahead of bad actors. 

Daniel Elad is the chief strategy officer for The View Point.

AMSTERDAM--At IBC2018, MediaKind, formerly Ericsson Media Solutions, has launched the MediaKind Personalization Suite, with a new workflow designed to allow service providers and broadcasters to deliver more relevant and personalized advertising. The MediaFirst Personalization Suite is a member of the company’s new Orion family of solutions that forms part of the wider MediaKind Universe portfolio.

The suite is designed to help transition broadcasters and service providers from the traditional one to many approach to the more personalized approach enabled by IP, which also brings along with it, new monetization opportunities.

The MediaKind Personalization Suite includes the newly launched placement and content distribution rights (PRISMA) application, an advertising product that comes pre-integrated with MediaKind’ Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), encoding & packaging, storage and delivery capabilities. This product gives TV service providers and broadcasters access to real-time broadcast schedule ingest from the playout automation system, and the ability to frame-accurately identify different placement opportunities such as ad breaks and ad spots or any other program boundaries.

Frame accurate signaling allows multiple use cases downstream including blackout, dynamic ad insertion and program substitution. With greater control and accuracy over the delivery of ad content, the ground is prepared for downstream Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) which in turn removes in particular any latency at the time of switching between original programming and replacing or inserting ad spots to ensure a true TV-like quality of experience for viewers, with reduced customer churn.

The MediaKind Personalization Suite also offers protection of audience data and its value to TV service providers and broadcasters. The application prevents leakage of this data to the Demand side and ensures it reaches its full value, by using a full abstraction layer between the operator’s cost per engagement (CPE) and the Demand side. In partnerships with leading ad tech suppliers, MediaKind is embedding a full trading stack to support both Direct and Programmatic inventory sales methods.

Further information about the MediaKind Personalization Suite, is on the new Orion family solution page.