SSAI: A deep dive into effective content monetization

By the Amagi Editorial Team, with inputs from our SSAI experts - March 25, 2022

You are a content owner, and you recently had some new, amazing titles added to your already massive video library. You also have a good set of active subscribers who seem to love your content. Everything is seemingly going well, but the real question is—is this enough?

Good quality content is not the only thing that can keep you afloat in the broadcast industry because that’s no longer a differentiator. Every other content owner has a ton of extremely well-done pieces of content. Among this chaos, how can you ensure effective content monetization?

The answer is—by generating maximum ad revenues.

Are there enough opportunities for you to maximize content ROI?

The good news here is that more and more viewers are flocking to the world of Connected TV (CTV). They are familiar with the concept of a ‘no strings attached’ viewing model where all they have to do is—plug n play. Most of them are tired of having close to five Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) connections and more than happy to go for a lean back experience accompanied by ads.

With CTVs making way into millions of homes, there has been a massive growth in Advertising Video On Demand (AVOD) and Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) viewers as well. In fact, the AVOD market is projected to triple revenues between 2020 and 2026 and hit a whopping $31 billion!

This statistic clearly shows the massive potential audiences that advertisers have access to. They can use highly segmented and tailor-made ads to target them. Who’d want to give up on an opportunity like that?

If we look at the US alone, nearly 60% Americans have moved to new-age streaming solutions leaving cable TV way behind. On an average, they are spending close to 2.7 hours streaming one or the other OTT platform every day.

These numbers have already tempted advertisers to redeem this opportunity and as a result, a massive 127% growth was seen in local advertising on streaming TV.

This is just the beginning. As more and more audiences move to ad supported platforms, more advertisers will automatically follow. If you are a content owner, now’s the time to focus on increasing ad revenue by effectively monetizing your video content.

How can you boost ad revenues?

There are two ways to insert ads in your video content — Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI) and Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) or Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). The basic technical difference between the two is that — in CSAI, the video player (client) requests the ad server for an ad upon reaching certain ad-markers present in the stream. In SSAI/DAI, ads are directly stitched into the video stream. This happens at server side and hence the client doesn’t have to do much.

Talking about drawbacks, the biggest shortcoming of CSAI ads is that—there can be times when ads are not able to play at all! This can happen due to a lot of reasons such as ad blockers and time outs , resulting in a terrible experience for the viewers.

If you take a step back and think about the biggest hurdle that stands between you and effective ad monetization, you’ll conclude that it’s ad blockers. While CSAI is not effective against them, SSAI/DAI can help you win this battle against ad blockers like a boss.

SSAI, although more expensive than CSAI, is much robust and results in more ad impressions as ad blockers are less effective in this case. Additionally, it provides a much better viewing experience for the audiences as ads are stitched into the video quite seamlessly. It mimics a broadcast viewing experience with high-quality video and graphics.

SSAI is a clear winner for you if you’re looking for:

  • A broadcast-like viewing experience
  • An effective protection against ad blocking
  • An overall great experience for your viewers

How a paradigm shift helped Cinedigm increase their ad revenues by 47%

With over millions of customers across the globe, Cinedigm is one of the world’s leading independent streaming companies. It provides premium content and streaming channels to some giant media and technology companies.

By leveraging Amagi THUNDERSTORM - dynamic ad-insertion platform, Cinedigm was able to drive tectonic shift in their ad monetization – that is, about 47% increase in ad revenues! Amagi THUNDERSTORM-powered SSAI helped the brand:

  • Achieve 21% increase in ad impressions
  • 100% increase in render rates (a calculation of the percentage of impressions served out of the total number of auctions won)

Amagi THUNDERSTORM — a brief overview

It is our dynamic SSAI/DAI platform that enables ad detection and replacement in real-time, in turn, driving enhanced monetization for OTT market players. Amagi THUNDERSTORM brings personalized ads on every screen viewed by the users through targeted advertising. It also supports new unintrusive ad formats such as Dynamic Brand Insertion (DBI), contextual video ads and graphics overlays ads that enable content owners to deliver a seamless viewing experience and improve brand affinity.

If you are all set to effectively monetize your video content, it’s time to get the Amagi advantage.

Amagi is the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology and has got everything you need to thrive in an increasingly competitive free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) ecosystem. You can count on us as your one-stop broadcast team to manage your end-to-end channel creation, distribution, and monetization requirements – with agility and proven technical excellence.

Contact us for more information.

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