Media Distillery Launches Ad Break Detection Solution

Media Distillery's Ad Breaks Distillery UI
(Image credit: Media Distillery)

AMSTERDAM—Media Distillery has unveiled Ad Break Distillery, a new solution that identifies the exact start and stop times of ad breaks in broadcast video, enabling video platform operators, service providers and broadcasters to enhance monetization opportunities for on-demand viewing while also improving user engagement.

“With the ad break markers we provide, video service providers are now enabled to do dynamic ad replacement, enforce trick play restrictions during ad breaks only, and deliver novel viewing experiences,” commented Roland Sars, CEO of Media Distillery.

The solution is designed to help companies capitalize on the gradual shift of viewership from linear viewing towards on-demand streaming services, and ever-intensifying competition for audience attention by providing viewers with personalized video experiences and by opening up new ways to monetize catch-up and replay services. 

More specifically, this allows broadcasters and operators of video entertainment platforms to: 

  • Create new ad inventory: Replace existing linear ad breaks with dynamically inserted and personalized ads for catch-up and replay.
  • Enforce trick-play restrictions: Apply restrictions during ad breaks but allow viewers to freely navigate through the content: no more complete limitation due to not knowing where the ad breaks are.
  • Repurpose broadcast content for FAST and AVOD: Extremely useful for content archives where existing ads no longer hold value – for instance, ads for campaigns that have ended, promotions that have expired, ads for products that no longer exist, or ads on foreign channels, all cases where the ads offer no current value to the advertiser or the viewer.
  • Bring the OTT experience to Replay: Elevate catch-up and replay viewing experiences to be in line with OTT UX with shorter and personalized ads.
  • Ad skipping subscription model: Offer a premium subscription that allows ad-skipping.

Ad Break Distillery builds on the same core technology as EPG Correction Distillery, which detects a program’s true start and stop times, so that viewers have a VOD-like experience for catch-up and replay. EPG Correction Distillery today improves catch-up and replay experiences for over 1,000 channels across the globe.

Ad Break Distillery also offers flexible integration options, the company said. Through AI-powered video analysis, Ad Break Distillery generates ad break markers that can be integrated directly into the video platform or delivered via integration with a video service’s existing EPG metadata provider.

More information is available here

George Winslow

George Winslow is the senior content producer for TV Tech. He has written about the television, media and technology industries for nearly 30 years for such publications as Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and TV Tech. Over the years, he has edited a number of magazines, including Multichannel News International and World Screen, and moderated panels at such major industry events as NAB and MIP TV. He has published two books and dozens of encyclopedia articles on such subjects as the media, New York City history and economics.