STAINES-UPON-THAMES, U.K.— Millennials accustomed to smaller ad loads in the online video content they watch pose a business challenge for traditional broadcasters — one that server-side ad insertion specialist Yospace says it has solved.
“The next generation of viewers is online and have grown up used to video with lighter ad loads,” says Yospace CEO Tim Sewell. “With the right ad-tech and data strategy in place, broadcasters can cater to that audience while increasing engagement with the advertising.”
The company has developed what it’s dubbed Non-Linear Startover (NLSO) technology to enable broadcasters serving up OTT content to reduce ad loads, thereby strengthening viewer engagement — especially among millennials — without sacrificing revenue.
The Yospace solution centers on allowing OTT viewers to rewind live content mid-stream and intelligently reducing the length of subsequent ad breaks to allow them to catch up with live action. While commercial breaks are shorter, broadcasters can charge a premium for the ads served by leveraging the individual addressability OTT platforms offer and targeting audiences with precise per-viewer advertising. Individual viewers are served only what’s relevant to them, which boosts engagement with advertising and drives up the CPM for the broadcaster, the company says.
Belgian broadcaster Medialaan has put the approach into practice. In late 2017, it launched Yospace’s server-side ad insertion technology with NLSO as part of its Stievie TV Everywhere service.
The broadcaster has seen an increase in long-form viewers since the launch and realized higher ad revenues via addressability, Yospace says. For its efforts, Medialaan received an IBC 2018 Innovation Award for Content Distribution.
“Providing a seamless viewing experience was more important than creating as many ad positions as possible, and Yospace understood that,” says Calogero Macaluso, Medialaan marketing director for Stievie. “Ultimately, we want to encourage the transformation from linear to digital by delivering a better customer experience.”
Medialaan “unlocked hundreds of hours of advertising inventory” since deploying the Yospace NLSO strategy, says Olivier van Zeebroeck, head of sales digital, for the broadcaster. “The introduction of server-side DAI [digital ad insertion] resulted in a 10% capacity increase for long-form views,” he adds.
More information is available on the Yospace website.
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