Marketing your wares or services in the modern world is changing. Traditional advertising methods are faltering. But you still need to break through the clutter and get your product in front of viewers, increase recall, and convert them into paying customers. 

In today’s challenging environment, ad blockers and overly disruptive advertising methods make things difficult. Content is difficult to target and make seamless. Enter Server-Side Ad Insertion or SSAI. 

Providing seamless ads that do not fall prey to ad blockers means your content is being seen by more people. The individualized targeting capabilities of SSAI are revolutionary. And you should get acquainted with all its benefits. 

Keep reading to learn everything you should know to build valuable content through SSAI. 

Simply put, SSAI is a means of dynamically inserting ads into video content. The content should already be high-quality and long-form. Whether you are a media distributor or a content owner, SSAI makes ad insertion better. 

The type of content SSAI is useful for is Over The Top (OTT) video services. This can be linear, live, or on-demand video content. 

SSAI provides a buffer-less manner of advertising. Transitioning from content to ad is seamless, providing a more comfortable user experience.

SSAI vendors are mediators. They work between the Online Video Player (OVP) and the ad server. By facilitating the communication between these two entities, the ads are appropriately placed within the video content.

These ads can be easily switched out to target each individual watching the content. This means your campaign can be optimized for maximum results.  

To get more technical, SSAI has a Manifest Manipulator (MM) component that splices streams for clients. This MM essentially makes all the decisions. It decides which ad to serve the client, retrieves the ad, and then stitches said ad into the video content at the last moment, in a frame-accurate manner. 

Dynamic Ad Insertion, or DAI, is just another name for SSAI. Both terms are often used interchangeably.

In fact, SSAI and DAI are referred to in many different ways. Ad stitching, dynamic insertion, server-side video ad technology - they are all the same thing. 

It is essential to highlight the "dynamic" part of DAI and the "Server-side" of SSAI. Together, these two terms create a more holistic understanding of the advertising process.

The dynamic concept means DAI accounts for constant change and is ready to adapt to the viewer. By preparing for the always-changing world, DAI provides more longevity in the advertising sphere. 

The Server-Side idea brings in a third party to the advertising world. It means SSAI is taking care of the legwork of getting an ad transcoded and stitched into the content being viewed by the end-user.

With this in mind, it's time to learn about the key benefits that SSAI - and by extension DAI - can provide. 

It is clear that DAI does a great deal for those looking to advertise content. From getting a greater ad value to being less disruptive, it's clearly more valuable for both consumers and advertisers. 

Now, let's look at the specifics of how DAI and SSAI can benefit you. 

Because SSAI is actually stitching together the ad and the video, ad blocking can be prevented. This gives SSAI a considerable advantage over many other forms of video advertising. 

To be more detailed, it is potentially impossible to block SSAI ads - for now, at least. Because the transitions between ads and content are so smooth, ad blockers cannot "see" the difference between the ad and the primary video because they look like one continuous stream. 

When potential customers are genuinely viewing your ads, you are far more likely to see results. Valuable ads create valuable revenue streams. 

The ads are more valuable for several reasons. One, as previously mentioned, you know they will actually be seen by customers. SSAI makes ad blocking more difficult. As a result, this can lead to better ad impressions.

Secondly, individual targeting and hyper-local ads can be utilized. Even with content broadcast on a national scale, ads can be targeted to a zip code. 

Lastly, available inventory can be sold programmatically.  This streamlines buyer access to ad inventory. 

Ads on broadcast television are historically bought based on a wide possible audience. With DAI, even the streaming simulcast can deliver to a niche or targeted audience - just as with online ads. With SSAI, it's all about customization and personalization. As mentioned, ads can be designed to target specific consumer types in specific locations. Additionally, SSAI can work on a variety of devices and all different endpoints. 

In many ways, it's the future of personalizing the TV sphere in particular. For years, it has been a struggle to accurately, and narrowly, target ads to those who watch TV.

Sure, it might have been possible to target a location in the past. But, it was much more difficult to target an individual specifically for your product. 

Now, it's clear that SSAI is the future of OTT. 

SSAI is less disruptive than most other forms of online advertising. This is because it works similarly to broadcast TV advertising. In particular, with SSAI there is no buffering. 

This is possible because the SSAI vendor converts the stream to an Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) format. Through this transcoding process, the ABR can tell what the consumer’s real-time bandwidth is. With this information, the stream can be altered to provide the best outcome. 

You can learn more about ABR from Zype Solutions. 

This works for end users who might have a low internet connection and those with state-of-the-art solid bandwidth. SSAI is also less disruptive, as it provides a superior viewing experience to ads that are not well-targeted. But we'll go into that in a later section. 

When it comes to getting your data, it's easy. All reporting can easily capture ad view metrics.

From the content producer’s side, they can access statistics showing how users interact with the ads. From the advertiser's side, they can analyze how their content is being targeted and engaged with. 

By having improved targeted ads, the consumer and advertiser benefit. 

According to a Consumer OTT Report by OpenX:

66% of users learned about a new product from an OTT ad

40% of users seen an OTT ad, then went online to learn more

For the consumer, if content is personalized to them they are more likely to be engaged. On the advertiser side, they can avoid the display of generic ads that don’t appeal to a target audience.

Right in the very name, DAI, you find the word "dynamic." Being dynamic in today's world is vital. It is necessary to adapt to the constant changes advertising is facing. 

Advertisers have wanted something like DAI for decades to better engage with their consumers. This form of advertising brings innovation.

With innovation, SSAI is overcoming many of the challenges advertisers have faced in recent years. In particular, SSAI is adapting for the rising newcomer on the block, live streaming.

Living streaming is continuing its rise towards dominating the video consumption market. With this in mind, it's a sure bet that advertisers want to make sure they are getting the products in front of the live streaming audience.

What makes DAI so revolutionary is that it can even be used in live streaming content. On the fly, the SSAI vendor can determine what ads will suit each viewer. 

DAI is quickly becoming the standard in streaming - the future is already here. It is clear from all of the benefits of DAI that, when it comes to live streaming content, it's the clear winner. 

When you are live streaming, it's also a good idea to consider Multi-Content Delivery Network (CDN) strategies. To learn more about Multi-CDN's and their benefits for live streaming, check out our post.

With this post, you should know everything you need to decide whether SSAI is the best form of advertising for you. If you are:

Looking to market your streaming service as a place for advertisers

An advertiser looking for the best way to show your products

Then, SSAI is definitely an option for you. 

Zype's SSAI solution includes built-in integration with major ad servers like SpotX and FreeWheel and supports a full range of ad macros to optimize ad fills. You can learn more about Zype's advertising capabilities here.

SSAI/DAI: Basics and Benefits (+ Live Streaming DAI)

Learn everything about server-side ad insertion, or SSAI, and dynamic ad insertion, or DAI, and how they work together to build valuable content.

In the U.S. alone, TV advertisements are a $71 billion industry. But for cable TV, that revenue is shrinking.

Americans are increasingly cutting the cord, leaving traditional ad-supported broadcasts and cable to plummet. Whether this is due to the overwhelming sentiment that TV advertisements are not relevant, or to the convenience offered by OTT services, fewer Americans have cable TV in their homes than ever before.

In response, advertising dollars are increasingly shifting away from cable TV and toward digital streaming to meet customers in their preferred settings – but that’s not the only challenge to overcome in regaining revenue.

Americans still consume an average of four hours of TV per day, but they’re now doing it in an environment where each player device can deliver ad personalization (given the user identification methodologies unique to the web). For broadcasters still using hard-coded advertisements in their streams, they run the risk of showcasing dated or irrelevant ads that need to be replaced.

For broadcasters looking to offer advertisers -- and viewers -- personalized ads using dynamic ad insertion best practices, the broadcast standard SCTE 35 signals are a modern solution to this problem. 

Here’s everything you should know about how OTT content distributors can use the cue tones built for analog broadcasting to power ad-supported linear streams across platforms such as Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, The Roku Channel, IMDb TV, Plex, and Xumo. 

SCTE 35 is a standard created by ANSI and the Society of Cable and Telecommunications Engineers that lays out guidelines for inline cue tone insertion in streams. Also referred to as markers, these signals indicate where content distributors could insert or splice content into a stream.

For example, if a local news station received a stream from a national news broadcaster, the stream might be marked in areas where the station could replace national ads with others that were more relevant to the community.

Cue tones originated as a means to signal commands to equipment, particularly when to start or stop. This was especially useful with cartridge tapes, as the tape would otherwise play in a loop. Originally, cue tones occurred as DTMF tones, or subaudible tones that could not be heard by normal listeners. As broadcasting shifted to digital means via IPTV, cue tones likewise became digital. Now, the markers are read by computers and no actual subaudible tone exists.

Applied to QAMP/IP, Title VI/TVE, and live or time-shifted delivery, SCTE 35 is the core signal standard for advertising, programming, and content distribution control. It was originally designed for ad insertion, but the digital nature of SCTE 35 markers brings greater flexibility to their use.

SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 work together to help with personalized ad placement, but many people are still confused about their relationship and differences.

In short: SCTE 35 cues exist within the MPEG transport stream. In contrast, SCTE 104 messages are sent between systems via TCP/IP.

SCTE 104 markers are inserted by an automation or playout system prior to sending the baseband video feed to the inserter. Once the feed reaches the encoder, those markers get translated into compressed stream markers to be transmitted with the content. The compressed markers are what SCTE 35 defines.

Think of it this way: the markers inserted under SCTE 104 are requests for content insertion. The markers inserted by SCTE 35 are what helps to fulfill those requests.

When an SCTE 35 marker appears in the program, it signals to broadcasters where they may splice other content into the feed. Typically, these spaces are predefined in 15-, 30-, or 45-second chunks  (though they don’t have to be). Broadcasters then decide what to do with that slot. Some options include:

Replacing low priority national ads with more relevant local ads

The diagram below illustrates a SCTE-35 embedded programmed HLS stream.

Besides ad insertion, SCTE 35 lends itself well to program segmentation. In program segmentation, content distributors split up content into different chunks for management purposes. The most common and readily visible example of this is chapters in recorded TV shows or movies.

Once segmented like this, a content distributor can add, change, or remove different parts of the program depending on their needs. For example, legal reasons might require a local station to black out a chapter of a movie. 

A content distributor could make a segment of content unavailable for web delivery. Likewise, another chapter might be replaced with a provider ad or local content that’s more relevant. 

These segments are unnoticed by the end viewer but give stations and content distributors significantly more control over the content they show.

OTT has some natural advantages for ad insertion. Specifically:

Unicasting means that each device connects to the server independently. It’s possible to leverage this to deliver more personalized ads because the device can read the SCTE 35 marker and reach out to the server for an ad.

Sequences of fragments are individually decodable – they don’t require the segment before or after it. That simplifies splicing and increases flexibility with how the ads are inserted.

Ad insertion with SCTE 104/35 works with SVOD, TVOD, and AVOD – it’s not server-dependent because the actual marker insertion happens before the server receives profiles and constructs manifests.

Likewise, OTT feeds are able to carry SCTE 35 markers that they receive from the transcoder. In other words, you’ll still handle SCTE 35 markers on the programmer side. 

When profiles get created, the transcoder will need to create segments that align with these markers. However, once compiled into the manifest, you’ll simply determine whether the playback device requests an ad (client-side insertion), or whether to manipulate the manifest itself to insert the ad (server-side insertion).

And since splicing is so simple, testing your ad insertion for live streams becomes a breeze. Any good live streaming platform available out there will have the ability to read markers, let you insert ads, and test beforehand what the final playback will look like.

It doesn’t take a well-funded research study to tell us what we already know: people hate ads. However, the data can support two very important considerations surrounding viewer behavior:

On-demand viewers are more averse to ads: 56% of on-demand viewers say they tend to mute ads on the TV versus 48% of live TV watchers. 54% of on-demand viewers say they don’t trust ads on TV, while only 48% of the live TV watchers share a similar view.

Despite consumer disdain for ads, Americans still tolerate them: 47% of Americans now subscribe to free ad-supported streaming TV services, or “FASTs.”

On one hand, we have on-demand viewers reporting their anti-ad viewing habits. On the other, we have almost 50% of Americans tolerating ads if it means they get access to free TV. Both of these points can lead us to the same conclusion: the better or more targeted the ads, the more engagement and money broadcasters can make off them.

SCTE 35 can help with that. If you have the power to serve up personalized ads to viewers, then SCTE 35 markers make it easy to identify where in the stream you can put them.

Personalized, On-Demand Content Just Became Realistic

With the rise of OTT streaming, content distributors have a new set of tools for easily delivering on-demand content. And SCTE 35 has found new relevance, promising the means to serve up personalized, on-demand ads to the viewer. Say goodbye to irrelevant or hard-coded ads in your OTT stream. Say hello to a new way to insert content and grow your revenue.

If you want to learn more about Zype's video platform and how our monetization solutions can help you leverage technologies like SCTE 35 to send targetable data back to your ad server for pinpoint ad targeting, click here. 

A Complete Guide to SCTE 35 for OTT Ad Insertion [2021 Edition]

Want to deliver targeted, personalized ads? With SCTE 35 personalized ads are a reality in streaming. Learn how to leverage SCTE 35 in this guide.

While ad-supported streaming is not a new concept (think Youtube), the past couple of years have shown major growth in the space. From Xumo to PlutoTV, more and more players are joining the ad supported video and AVOD space, but it’s still uncharted territory for many. 

The most critical question for any business looking to launch an ad-supported streaming service is how much money they can expect to make. It can be intimidating to enter a new video space, so Zype has developed the Video Advertising (AVOD) Revenue and Expense Model for Video Streaming Infrastructure to make things easier. 

Zype’s Video Advertising Model allows businesses to forecast their advertising revenue and expenses prior to launching their service in order to present detailed forecasts to stakeholders, management, and creators in their network.

It’s important to note that in order for the model to be useful, estimates must be realistic and based on your own assumptions on your current performance and forecasts data,

Make a copy of the model for your own use by going to File > Make a Copy or File > Download as > Microsoft Excel

Input estimates you want to test into the blue cells (do not edit any cells that are not blue)

Be sure to also check out our Subscription Revenue Forecast Model to compare and contrast the different options for monetizing your video.

Want to learn more about Zype’s Video Advertising connectors and capabilities? Request a demo today!

Forecast Earning Potential for Ad-Supported Streaming with Zype’s Video Advertising Revenue and Expense Model for Streaming Infrastructure

Since launching Zype Playout, we've been excited to show an in-depth look at the easiest way for video product teams to create, monetize, and distribute broadcast-quality, linear live IP-delivered streams. Awarded NAB Product of the Year Award for B2B Streaming at NAB Show 2019, Zype Playout boasts channel creation, program management, support for multiple monetization setups, among other exciting features. And we think it's pretty awesome that Zype Playout contributed meaningfully to Zype's full-stack video content management and distribution service, helping Zype secure the title of OTT Exec Company of the Year 2019.

With Zype Playout, you'll be able to build, program, and broadcast linear channels created from playlists of videos that already exist in your Zype library

 What are the key features of Zype Playout? 

Distribute to your Owned and Operated websites and video apps, plus OTT marketplaces

Syndicate to partners like YouTube, Twitch, and any other RTMP or HLS standard-based destination

Monetize O&O by using subscription and purchase paywalls

Gain more audience metadata by adding a registration wall

Keep your channel fresh by adding or editing your Playout channel rundown through your source playlist

For those of you who have configured Zype Live to broadcast a live event in the Zype platform, Zype Playout will be a synch. Even if you don't have familiarity with live events, we doubt you'll have any issues understanding the steps outlined below. Remember that with Zype Playout, you'll be able to build, program, and broadcast linear channels created from playlists of videos that already exist in your Zype library.

Step 1 - Determine where your channel will be distributed - Playout destinations determine where you'll distribute your Playout stream, whether it's to existing owned and operated websites and videos apps, to YouTube and Facebook Live, or to custom destinations.

Step 2 - Review and edit your channel rundown - Because your Playout channel is created from a playlist in your Zype library, you can use an existing playlist for your channel rundown, or build a new source playlist to use when you create your channel.

Step 3 - Create your channel - Once a Zype Playout channel is created, it exists in your Zype library just as a video or live event would. You can add or edit metadata like a custom thumbnail image, and test the broadcast to view your channel rundown (Zype Live customers will be familiar with this) right from the Manage Channels page.

Zype handles all of the complex underlying video packaging, broadcast server management, and infrastructure; we work to normalize video bitrates, renditions, and aspect ratios from different videos in your library to provide a cohesive, high-quality stream experience to successfully broadcast your Playout channel.

Glad you asked! We always recommend our Help Center as a good source of knowledge when trying to dig deeper. We've created a Zype Playout section covering playout destinations, playout channels, monetization, and more.

Visit the Zype Playout product page to for a high-level overview of the product and it's capabilities. If you aren't working with Zype today but would like to learn more, request a demo with our team.

Up Close and Personal with Zype Playout

We’re excited to announce the launch of Zype Playout, the easiest way for video product teams to create, monetize, and distribute broadcast-quality, linear live IP-delivered streams.

Zype Playout offers easy-to-use workflows for transforming playlists of videos into IP-delivered linear live streams, including:

Slate and ad timing management, scheduling, and packaging

Distribution to your Owned and Operated websites and video apps, plus OTT marketplaces

Syndication to partners like SlingTV, YouTube, Twitch, and any other RTMP or MPEG-TS standards-based destination.

With Zype Playout, customers have all the tools they need to build, program, and broadcast linear channels using playlists of videos from their Zype library.

Zype provides an easy to use flow for creating and managing Playout Destinations -- the streaming destinations where linear channels are being broadcasted or syndicated out to. Customers can store Playout Destination profiles for popular streaming targets like YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and Periscope by entering stream URLs and keys for each destination. Or customers can create and manage custom Playout Destinations for any stream target that can accept RTMP, MPEG-TS, or HLS input.

Once Destinations are created, customers can then begin building Playout Channels. Playout Channels are collections of videos programmed in a specific order, which are transformed into linear live IP-delivered broadcasts. Playout Channels inherit ad timings managed within the Zype platform, allowing for easy integrated ad management. After customers have programmed Playout Channels and scheduled a start and end time for broadcast, they can assign which Destinations each channel should be broadcasted to.

Zype handles all of the complex underlying video packaging, broadcast server management, and infrastructure needed to successfully broadcast a Playout Channel. All customers need to do is ensure their Playout Destinations are configured to receive streams!

Schedule a live demo to learn how Zype Playout can help your VidOps team organize, plan, program, and distribute broadcast-quality linear video channels to increase audience engagement, and grow your distribution footprint.

If you’re not attending NAB, or would like to simply learn more today about working with Zype, please request a demo with our team!

Easily Launch IP-Based Linear Channels with Zype Playout

In this article, Guy Columbro, Sr. Account Executive at Zype, shares his first hand experience in the shift f rom the days of Blockbuster VHS to the direct-to-consumer, digital-first video landscape we have today. He documents what his "aha" moment was and why it still matters to keep your eye on the horizon.

I can still remember the day my father brought home our shiny new Dell desktop computer monitor and hard drive tower. We built the desk for it together and there it sat, glistening in the office lighting. Little did I know the about the powerful world that was placed in front of me. So, what did I do first? Download the two critical most components to benefit my social life, of course!

What do AOL-IM and an MP3 player download have to do with OTT? The over-the-top (OTT) media wave is new; until 4 years ago, many of us did not have a device to stream content in our home. Our experience with direct-to-consumer really started with very basic forms of digital interaction. I’ve had a chance to reflect on my journey from MP3 to OTT and am excited to tell you how it landed me as an AE at Zype.

It All Started With Music: Downloading MP3 Files

For many of us, the first shift towards digital began with instant messaging and the ability to download music (legally and illegally) from the internet directly to the computer. Like me, you may remember the “Folder to Folder” icon that would pass a piece of paper from one folder to another, representing the downloading process. And then...you’d begin your wait. While I unfortunately was not one of the first kids in school with a new iPod to listen to all my super cool MP3 file music, I can admit I almost immediately damaged the family computer downloading illegal files from any and every music website claiming to have the song I was looking for.

Having my music on the computer was novelty enough to me. I couldn’t possibly have imaged that one day, it would be in my pocket, available from my phone. Smartphones are too big a topic for me to cover in this one, but I will say that for me, streaming music was first gateway into streaming video.

Then We Moved Up in the World:  Streaming Content on Desktop

My next big experience with technology revolutionizing my media consumption methods was when I learned how to stream video files on my computer. No more running out to the theater to pay $20 for over-buttered popcorn and someone’s head in my way of the screen. I won’t confirm or deny the legality of it, but let’s just say finding feature length films available at the touch of a download button seemed to top it all.

There was a slight drawback however; the content I was steaming wasn’t exactly quality . To put this in perspective for all those used to a millisecond load time and zero lag, let’s look at some riveting tech data. From 1990-2004, there were essentially 4 media players that allowed you to stream content from the internet (check out the image below for a good laugh). If you had any experience with them at all, you will remember that the stream was typically inconsistent, buffered frequently and ultimately you probably clicked out of the window to move on with you day. So not exactly living like a king, but hey, I was watching at home! How cool is that?

Followed by the Emergence of Mobile Streaming & Netflix

So I have music on my computer, and now I have a couple of choppy stolen - uh, downloaded - videos, but for the consistent movie experience, I’m still completely loyal to Blockbuster. On a Friday night, I’m rushing to the neighborhood Blockbuster with my friends to try and rent the latest games and movie, and grab a huge box of Sour Patch Kids. It really doesn’t occur to me that there are massive overhauls on the horizon.

My real “aha” moment came with two things. First, the release of the iPhone in 2007, and second, the new DVD rental service Netflix. I was certain Netflix was a fad, impossible to sustain. Mailing DVDs seemed like a ridiculous hassle to me, and completely impersonal compared to the Blockbuster-night experience I had grown up with and love.

And in a way, I was right. Netflix’s DVD rental service collapsed. Of course, little did I know about the plans for world dominance that Netflix had in store. Once the streaming platform subscription was released, everyone I knew quickly flocked to purchase an OTT device.

I will admit, I was pretty hesitant to jump onboard with a Netflix subscription initially. I was used to traditional cable providers with thousands of channels, access to premium channels like HBO, Starz and Cinemax with nothing to watch. Why was OTT going to be any different?

But it seemed like consumers were yearning for something new all along. Netflix surprised me again with original content and basically zero buffering time, and soon enough I was a subscriber and I, too, had a streaming device.

I don’t need to tell you how the iPhone transformed the way we think about the internet, communication, and access to music. But it’s not just that. Today, with apps like Netflix, HBO, and others, people are streaming more content on their phone than ever before.

As we all become more accustomed to a life of on-demand media, I think it is important to remember the luxury of high speed internet connection and endless video content consumption options. We live in a time of extreme change, and connectivity. I think it will be imperative to empower people to create content that will help improve, educate and bring together our world creatively, in a socially responsible way.

Growing up with OTT

Zype Wins Third Stevie Award for Customer Service and Support

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SSAI/DAI: Basics and Benefits (+ Live Streaming DAI)

A Complete Guide to SCTE 35 for OTT Ad Insertion [2021 Edition]

Forecast Earning Potential for Ad-Supported Streaming with Zype’s Video Advertising Revenue and Expense Model for Streaming Infrastructure

Up Close and Personal with Zype Playout

Easily Launch IP-Based Linear Channels with Zype Playout

Growing up with OTT

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