Yospace brings the latest innovations in ad insertion to IBC 2022

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The server-side ad insertion pioneer marks a decade of innovation at IBC with the launch of a live event orchestration system and live rewind functionality. 

Staines-upon-Thames, UK, September 1st, 2022 – Yospace, the pioneer of server-side ad insertion (SSAI), will demonstrate the latest advances in its technology on its stand (#5.A47) at IBC 2022. The company’s latest innovations, which include a new orchestration system and non-linear live streaming, are designed to maximise the monetisation opportunities and user experience of live sports.

IBC 2022 comes 10 years after Yospace’s one-to-one advertising solution for live streaming was first recognised by the IBC Innovation Awards with its seminal project with UK broadcaster ITV. In the intervening time, the company has led the way in driving the technology forward, specifically in delivering programmatic advertising on a global scale. The company’s work on reducing ad load in live streams won at the IBC Innovation Awards in 2018. Long-term tier 1 customers include DIRECTV in the U.S.; BT Sport, ITV, and Sky in the UK; TV4 in Europe; Nine and Seven West Media in Australia.

Orchestration of sports events

Yospace’s orchestration solution for live sports enables rights-holders to easily power linear OTT channels up and down for each event, freeing them from the challenge of managing a 24/7 channel and the usual overheads associated with publishing event-based live channels. The solution empowers sports rights-holders to broadcast and monetise the full calendar of events they have invested in, ensuring dedicated sports fans never miss a moment of the action.

“Sporting events are highly dynamic in terms of their scheduling, ad breaks and audience demand,” said David Springall, CTO and Founder at Yospace. “We’ve orchestrated the process of operating ‘pop-up’ channels such that they are as reliable as 24/7 channels, with no practical limit to the number that can be supported simultaneously. What really sets this solution apart is the way in which we can ensure that the operations teams can get the most important real-time metrics for their audience and advertising performance as their live content offering scales up and down.”

Non-linear live streaming

Yospace’s non-linear live streaming functionality enables viewers of live events to rewind a live stream if, for example, they miss a goal in a football match. Advertising is dynamically replaced at the point an ad break is viewed, with accurate impression reporting, even when the viewer is in non-linear playback mode. Non-linear live streaming has already been deployed by several major sports broadcasters, including BT Sport.

“Yospace has been an important partner of BT Sport since 2016 and is a true innovator of live session management at scale,” said Jeremy Rosenberg, Director of Advertising Partnerships at BT Sport. “While initially we needed a monetisation solution, what we have today is a partner that is quick to adapt to new challenges and provides innovative solutions, to ensure its ahead of the curve, in an ever evolving market.”

At IBC 2022, Yospace will also be discussing its landmark innovations in one-to-one stream management at scale over the last decade, which continue to define digital video monetisation, including:

  • Broadcast-grade reliability:
    Providing 100% uptime with reliability proven for tens of millions of concurrent live streams
  • Programmatic for live events at scale:
    Optimising third-party demand according to broadcaster priorities, such as CPM, industry, or programmatic tier
  • “Total TV” advertising strategies across live and VOD:
    Empowering broadcasters to develop long-term data strategies. TV4 in Sweden was the first to take this approach and achieved the best financial results in its history within five years
  • Client-side beaconing:
    Complimenting server-side stitching with client-side measurement to guarantee the best video experience and the most accurate real-time metrics
  • HLS, MPEG-DASH and CMAF support:
    For a complete multi-platform, multi-DRM monetisation solution
  • Granular Alternate Content Policies:
    The ability for broadcasters to meet their content licensing commitments by providing a mechanism to deliver alternate content to users based on highly granular regional targeting 
  • GDPR-compliance and data protection:
    The Yospace SSAI architecture is designed to support the most stringent implementation of user privacy regulation, while supporting third-party programmatic demand

“Since being the first to publicly demonstrate server-side ad insertion in a live stream in 2011, Yospace has risen to the challenge of providing monetisation at scale as audiences everywhere have embraced streaming,” said Tim Sewell, CEO, Yospace. “Time and again customers have come to us with specific problems and I’m incredibly proud of how the team has continued to adapt to them. Our orchestration and non-linear live streaming tools are the latest demonstration of industry progression, and we can’t wait to showcase our innovations again at IBC.”

Follow this link to book a meeting with Yospace at IBC:

https://www.yospace.com/ibc/

About Yospace

Yospace is the foremost provider of server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology in the world today. Its solution allows live streams and on demand (VoD) content to be monetised for OTT in a way that is true to the seamless viewer experience of linear television, while opening up benefits of digital advertising such as one-to-one addressability and real-time measurement.

Yospace was the first to publicly demonstrate SSAI in a live stream, with ITV in 2012, and today services major broadcasters and network operators across the globe, including DirecTV in the USA; Sky Media, ITV, BT Sport, Channel 4 and STV in the UK; Telia and TV4 in Sweden; Optus, Nine, and Seven West Media and in Australia.

In 2019, Yospace was acquired by RTL Group.

Media contact

Paul Davies at Platform Communications

paul@platformcomms.com

+44 (0) 203 832 3690

Teamwork for ‘dynamic’ Total Video advertising sales

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Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and advertising technology provider Yospace are jointly testing targeted, digital spot exchanges.

Cologne, Germany, 28th June 2019 – The right advertising at the right time for the right target group, all thanks to Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). To ensure the dynamic delivery of video advertising during live streaming, the British video technology provider Yospace is teaming up with Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and advertising sales specialist IP Deutschland. Yospace, which was acquired by RTL Group in January 2019, is specialised in Server-Side Dynamic Ad Insertion (SSDAI) solutions. The technology enables ads to be exchanged in the video stream, both in live streams and during on-demand viewing. The advertising technology is first being tested in VOX’s live stream on TVNOW.

“We want to be the nation’s number one in every discipline. And one way to achieve that is by forging strong alliances. One such alliance is our close cooperation with RTL Group subsidiary Yospace, which is a key component of our Total Video advertising sales strategy”, explains Matthias Dang, Chief Commercial, Technology & Data Officer at Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. “Part of our day-to-day business entails analysing, testing and evaluating innovations. The combination of an extensive reach and the latest advertising technology is a significant contributing factor in our advertising sales success. Integrating the Yospace technology is a further building block that will give us a clear competitive edge.”

Tim Sewell, CEO at Yospace, explains what makes the technology so special:”When ads are inserted digitally, the power of television advertising and online advertising come together, such as targeting, linking and enhanced measurement. Rather than assembling television content and video advertising from two different sources, our technology integrates both into a single stream, guaranteeing a seamless transition. We’re already working together with many well-known broadcasters, Telcos and pay-TV operators in Europe, the USA and Asia and are looking forward tremendously to the first media partnership with Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. More partners from the RTL Group family will follow shortly.”

Yospace’s advertising technology enables dynamic ad exchange in both live content and on-demand video content on any Internet-enabled device. Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland is currently sizing up its potential, because according to Jens Pöppelmann, Director Media Operation at IP Deutschland, this test is just a first step. “We see DAI as a future market and additional key pillar in video advertising sales and expect SSDAI to become the standard in premium streaming services. Consequently, we’re planning an even deeper technical integration of Yospace’s technology, to enable us in the medium term to propose the offering for all live streams and subsequently also for our on-demand content. This will enable us to create even greater incentives for advertisers.”

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Yospace and Seven extend partnership for server-side ad insertion into live OTT

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Successful monetisation of major events portfolio and scalable programmatic result in deal renewal with Australian TV network

Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 30th May 2019 – Yospace, the pioneering provider of server-side ad insertion (SSAI) technology, has today announced the extension of its partnership with Seven, Australia’s leading commercial TV network, enabling SSAI into live OTT channels.

The announcement marks the third year of apartnershipinwhich Yospace’s SSAI technology has been leveraged to create new, addressable ad spots during some of Seven’s largestlive events, including the Winter Olympics, Rugby League World Cup, Commonwealth Games and Melbourne Cup, an event that pulls the highest concurrent streaming audiences in Australia.

Yospace’s SSAI platform, used by leading broadcasters across the globe, solves the technical complexities of delivering addressable advertising for streamed television while maintaining a TV-quality viewer experience, This has enabled Seven to generate new revenue streams across the breadth of its enviable live sports portfolio and 24×7 Broadcast simulcast streams.

The platform successfully addresses a critical challenge in monetising live streams at scale, that of managing the load on ad servers and programmatic platforms when they are hit by a sudden surge in simultaneous ad requests, as happens with major live events.  Yospace’s “prefetch” system enables it to call ad servers and the wider programmatic ecosystem in advance, affording them the time needed to handle the spike in ad requests and deliver the highest possible fill-rate for the broadcaster.

“We’ve worked with Seven to pioneer new approaches to monetising its premium live content,” said Tim Sewell, Yospace. “Broadcasters, advertisers, and audiences are demanding more from OTT in terms of viewer experience, addressability and scale – and the extension of our partnership is testimony to our ability to deliver that. We’ll continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible with server-side ad insertion and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership with Seven for the long term.”

“Our viewers expect an engaging, high-quality viewing experience – whether they’re watching Broadcast or Internet streaming content – especially during high-profile live events,” said Darren Kerry, Director Digital Product and Technology, Seven. “Yospace has helped us elevate the OTT viewing experience while opening up whole new bodies of inventory at scale. Yospace will continue to be an important partner as we continue to maximise the value of that inventory through programmatic.”

 

Yospace and Medialaan achievement recognised by The Connies

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Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 9thMay 2018
The work of Yospace and Medialaan, Belgium’s leading commercial broadcaster, has been recognised at the 2018 Connies awards ceremony.

The companies were shortlisted in the Contribution to User Experience – TV & Video Category and walked away with the Silver Award for their work on Non-Linear Startover with Dynamic Ad Insertion.

Non-Linear Startover in Medialaan’s TV Everywhere service, Stievie, allows viewers to rewind a live stream then receive shorter ad breaks to help them catch up with the live action.  Ad breaks that have already been seen are made skippable.

The technical achievement in providing a modern, personalised viewing experience like this has set a benchmark for broadcasters around the world.

John Moulding, Editor-in-Chief at Videonet: “Fully monetising online video is one of the great challenges of our age for commercial broadcasters. This solution demonstrates how it can be done while also boosting the viewing experience. Shortening ad breaks in replay mode, so that viewers can catch up with live, is bold as well as innovative.”

The award marks the third year in a row in which Yospace has won at The Connies, following wins with Sky UK in 2017 and Channel 4 in 2016.

The Connies celebrate the latest and best practice in the connected consumer marketplace and are highly respected by media agencies, media owners and technology partners across the globe.  The ceremony was held at London’s Banking Hall on 8thMay.

Read Yospace and Medialaan’s press release marking the service’s launch here.

Yospace and BT Sport win at the 2018 Sports Technology Awards

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Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 4thMay 2018
Yospace and BT Sport have won the award for Most Innovative Sports Partnership at The Yahoo Sports Technology Awards.

The award recognised the companies’ achievement in monetising full seasons of top-flight sport, including Premier League, The Emirates FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and Aviva Premiership Rugby. The project marked a watershed in delivering addressable dynamic ad insertion with the scale and reliability required for broadcasters to thrive in a digital era.

Pete Samara, Director of Innovation and Technology, F1,said: “The partnership tackled one of the commercial and technical challenges of today’s entertainment – how to ensure advertisers get what they need while ensuring the fan/ consumer is still engaged. This is a great solution for live sports.”

The Awards, which were held in London’s iconic Roundhouse, celebrate tech-led innovations across all sports, attracts entries from over 30 countries representing 50 sports, in 15 categories which are reviewed by 32 leading industry-figures spanning players, athletes, sports governance and business visionaries.

Read Yospace and BT Sport’s press release marking the service’s long-term extension here.

 

Akamai and Yospace bowl up dynamic ad insertion for live cricket with SonyLIV

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Bengaluru, India – March 15, 2018 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, today announced that SonyLIV, the premium Video on Demand (VOD) service by Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), providing multi-screen engagement to users on all devices, leveraged Akamai’s Dynamic Ad Insertion capabilities during the India-South Africa cricket series held over January and February 2018.

SonyLIV was the official and exclusive mobile and internet broadcaster for the India Tour of South Africa series and delivered it to millions of users seamlessly across a variety of devices. Digital advertisers gained the most through the course of the series, with Akamai’s Dynamic Ad Insertion delivering targeted advertisements during the live stream. With this partnership SonyLIV achieved a near 100% ad fill rate without compromising on the viewing experience for users.

Pitch Madison’s Advertising Report for 2018[1] projects advertising spend on digital platforms is to reach Rs.11,629 crores in 2018, representing a 19.5% increase over the Rs.9,303 crores spent in 2017. In 2017, the spend on mobile was 78% (Rs.7,256 crores) of the total digital outlay. Video represented 35% (Rs.3,300 crores) of the total spend. This indicates a strong reflection of growing consumer trends in the country. A report[2] by MoMagic Technologies found that 40% of Indians prefer to watch advertisement videos on their mobile phones over other media. Additionally, as per IDC[3], India is the fastest growing smartphone market globally with a total of 124 million units shipped in 2017.

Powered by advertising technology expert Yospace, Akamai’s Dynamic Ad Insertion is designed to help content providers offer greater monetization opportunities through online advertising, while maintaining a TV-like experience for viewers at scale. Server-side ad insertion, in which advertisements are stitched into content from the server-side, is intended to offer numerous benefits to advertisers, content providers and consumers, including:

  • Reliability and limitless scale for linear broadcast-size television audiences
  • Increased device reach with faster time to market
  • Improved viewing experiences and resiliency to ad blocking
  • Enhanced operational visibility through analytics

Sidharth Pisharoti, Regional Vice President, Media, Asia Pacific and Japan, Akamai Technologies said, “SonyLIV has a vast library of original content. However, in India, few entertainment options have the capability to attract mass audiences like cricket. While the challenge on the one hand is to keep audiences engaged with a TV-like experience, the equally hard part is ensuring that advertisers see value in leveraging digital platforms to drive views and consequently, revenue through advertisements. With Akamai’s capabilities, we were able to successfully deliver what audiences and advertisers wanted over the course of the India-South Africa series.”

Uday Sodhi, EVP and Business Head, Digital Business, Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) added “The India Tour of South Africa series was a huge success for SonyLIV and our audiences had a seamless experience throughout. We partnered with Akamai and leveraged their technology and added it to our already existing capabilities. The series was a huge hit with all the brands we associated with.”

With video poised to be the largest driver of internet traffic in the country by 2021[4], opportunities for publishers and advertisers in this space are only set to grow.

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[1] Pitch Madison Advertising Report 2018
[2] 40% of Indians prefer video ads on mobile phones: Survey
[3] India Smartphone Market Finishes Strong with 124 Million Total Shipment Units in 2017 After a Brief Slowdown in 2016, says IDC
[4] Cisco VNI Forecast Highlights Tool


About Akamai

As the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, Akamai makes it easier for its customers to provide the best and most secure digital experiences on any device, anytime, anywhere. Akamai’s massively distributed platform is unparalleled in scale with over 200,000 servers across 130 countries, giving customers superior performance and threat protection. Akamai’s portfolio of web and mobile performance, cloud security, enterprise access, and video delivery solutions are supported by exceptional customer service and 24/7 monitoring. To learn why the top financial institutions, e-commerce leaders, media & entertainment providers, and government organizations trust Akamai please visit www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or @Akamai on Twitter.

 

About SonyLIV

SonyLIV is the first premium Video on demand (VOD) service by Sony Pictures Networks’ (SPN) providing multi-screen engagement for users on all devices. Launched in January 2013, it enables users to discover 20 years of rich content from the network channels of Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd. It also provides a rich array of movies, strong line-up of events across all sports, shows, music, product reviews.

With over 40 million app downloads so far, SonyLIV is the first amongst its competition to provide original exclusive premium content. As a true pioneer in its space, SonyLIV launched India’s first-ever original show exclusively for the online platform earlier this year. With #LoveBytes, it became the country’s first digital video-on- demand (VOD) platform to introduce an innovation of this nature. SonyLIV also launched YOLO – You Only Live Once, the first-ever regional language web-series on an OTT platform in India and LIV FIT the first-ever health and wellness segment on an OTT platform in the country. In October 2016, SonyLIV also introduced LIV Kids as its premium content especially designed for children. The digital platform is a home to over 4000 hours of food content making it the one stop destination for food lovers.

Streaming the biggest football tournament of 2017 – U-17 FIFA World Cup India 2017 and making SonyLIV the most preferred online destination for football fans.

Yospace and BT Sport shortlisted for The Sports Technology Awards

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Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 15th February 2018

Yospace and BT Sport have been shortlisted for the 2018 Sports Technology Awards for Server-side Dynamic Ad Insertion into live channels on BT Sport’s OTT platforms.  They are listed in the Most Innovative Sports Partnership category.

The project has earned particular praise for the way in which addressable advertising is applied at scale.  By developing a cutting-edge “pre-fetch” system, Yospace is able to prepare for ad breaks ahead of time, giving ad decisioning systems a longer window in which to respond.  In an environment where millions of viewers could be watching simultaneously, this development ensures a reliable and scalable ad experience for all concerned.

The project has already been recognised by the broadcast industry, at the 2017 Content Innovation Awards, and Yospace is delighted to be earning wider recognition for what was a truly innovative partnership.

Read the full shortlist here:
https://www.sportstechnologyawards.com/news/2018-shortlist

Yospace and Seven extend their partnership to a long-term agreement for Dynamic Ad Insertion into live OTT channels to accelerate Addressable TV at Scale

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Sydney, Australia, Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 7th February 2018

Yospace and Seven extend their innovative partnership into a long-term agreement for enabling Dynamic Ad Insertion into live OTT channels at scale.

Yospace’s platform, the world’s foremost server-side DAI technology, allows Seven, the leading commercial broadcaster in Australia, to open up online ad breaks in live OTT streams in a way that is as seamless to the viewer as on broadcast television, with true one-to-one addressability at scale.

The system was used by Seven for the 2017 Australian Open (part of the Summer of 7Tennis season), during which ad breaks were editorially triggered.  There has since been a full integration between Yospace’s platform and the Imagine D Series automation system that drives the broadcaster’s linear TV channels, meaning that DAI can be applied 24/7.

This latest iteration of DAI was launched last year for the Rugby League World Cup in October, for which online streaming and resulting advertising opportunities were much higher than expected.  In further evidence of the proliferation of live streaming audiences, total minutes viewed during this year’s Australian Open, for which DAI was applied across sixteen simultaneous online channels, were double Seven’s expectations.

According to OzTAM, Australia’s official source of television audience measurement, 7Tennis occupied all top ten Video Player Measurement positions during the tournament.  Similar ratings are expected as Seven looks ahead to major sporting events that includes this month’s Winter Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games, which are to be held on Australia’s Gold Coast in April.

Clive Dickens, Chief Digital Officer at Seven West Media, said: “We’re seeing emotionally-invested viewers with a high propensity to stream.  Average user sessions on web during the Australian Open were over 30mins.”

The automation integration also allows Yospace to automatically create VOD assets, making them available to Seven’s viewers for catch-up within minutes of a live programme’s end.  Ad markers in the VOD assets are retained from the live stream, allowing new advertising to be delivered whenever the catch-up content is viewed.

David Springall, Chief Technical Officer and Founder at Yospace, said: “Working together with Seven on major events such as the Australian Open and Rugby League World Cup has allowed us to set new standards for addressable advertising over OTT.  We’re delighted to be extending our partnership and enabling dynamic ad insertion across their channels 24/7.”

Yospace and Seven are presenting together at the Future TV Advertising Forum in Sydney on 22nd February.  Find out more here.

Sky Deutschland chooses Yospace’s dynamic ad insertion platform for Sky Go

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Staines-upon-Thames, UK – 18th July 2017
Sky Deutschland has chosen Yospace’s dynamic ad insertion platform to monetise live channels on Sky Go, the leading “TV Everywhere” service in Europe.

The system allows addressable advertising to be served across Sky Deutschland’s enviable suite of live sports coverage, including The Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League.  Ad stitching is performed so seamlessly that it perfectly replicates the experience of linear TV, with the viewer unable to distinguish the replaced advertising from the underlying stream.

With live sports such an important draw for Sky Go subscribers, the quality of user experience goes hand-in-hand with platform stability.  Yospace’s solution has been proved to be robust enough to support huge audiences on a regular basis, across a full season of top tier football coverage.

Boris Haug, Vice President Product, Brand Solutions & Operations of Sky Media: “Dynamic Ad Insertion empowers us to monetize Sky Go reach, that isn’t considered in linear TV AGF ratings, but represents a growing part of the total reach of Sky live sports events. Besides, it offers targeting opportunities and exact measurement that is far more sophisticated compared to TV. Yospace happens to be an innovative technology partner that can even handle peaks like Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund reliably.”

Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace: “This announcement marks an expansion of Yospace’s involvement with Sky, having worked with Sky in the UK since 2015.  We are delighted to be adding Sky Deutschland to our growing list of major broadcast customers around the globe.  It’s fantastic that Yospace is recognised, yet again, as the world’s leading provider of dynamic ad insertion technology.”

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