Parity ad decisioning for linear and digital programming streams
An ad decision service (“ADS”) serves advertisements to digital platforms in parity with linear programming schedules. The advertisements are prepared ahead of time by the ADS based on the linear programming schedules that indicate ad space availability. Upon receiving ad requests from a digital delivery platform, the ADS returns digital-compliant ad responses. Thus, the ADS provides the same ads that are chosen for delivery to linear platforms to the digital platforms.
1 . A method for fulfilling ad requests for insertion into streaming media, comprising:
detecting that a current local schedule file has been received in an external shared file, the local schedule file including programming information and related marketing information and identifying a plurality of avails for local ad insertion;
downloading and storing the current local schedule file;
generating and storing a plurality of ad responses, each one of the plurality of ad responses mapped to one of the plurality of identified avails in the local schedule file;
receiving an ad request for a first avail from an external manifest server on a digital platform; and
retrieving one of the plurality of ad responses that is mapped to the respective avail and sending the retrieved and mapped ad response to the external manifest server in response to the ad request.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
including a tracking beacon with each of the plurality of ads when generated, the tracking beacon will verify ad impressions.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving the tracking beacon back from the digital platform after an ad impression; and
generating a verification file for reporting and billing for each ad impression.
4 . A system for fulfilling ad requests for insertion into streaming media, comprising:
a processor configured to perform the steps of:
(a) detecting receipt of a local broadcast schedule into an external shared file, the local broadcast schedule including a scheduled broadcast of a first linear program, the local broadcast schedule further identifies a plurality of available ad breaks in the first linear program for local ad insertion and includes programming information and related marketing information;
(b) downloading and storing the local schedule file;
(c) preparing a plurality of ads in a digital-compatible format for the plurality of available ad breaks, each one of the plurality of ads mapped to a respective one of the plurality of available ad breaks;
(d) storing the plurality of ads;
(e) upon receiving a first ad request from an external manifest server that is streaming the first linear program to a digital customer device, the first ad request identifying a first ad break of the plurality of ad breaks, retrieving a first ad from the stored plurality of ads that is mapped to the first ad break; and
(f) returning the first ad to the external manifest server for playout on the customer device in the first ad break.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to incorporate a tracking beacon with each of the plurality of ads when generated, the tracking beacon will verify ad impressions.
6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further
configured to receive the tracking beacon back from the digital platform after an ad impression; and to
generate a verification file for reporting and billing for each ad impression.