Hey now, you’re an ad star (with Yospace)
Posted on Mar 31, 2025 by FEED Staff
FEED sits down with Paul Davies of Yospace to discuss the new standards of dynamic ad insertion
Sponsored editorial
With the growth of live sports streaming and platforms relying more on advertising revenues, the importance of dynamic ad insertion (DAI) to maximise monetisation is more crucial than ever before. Yospace is at the forefront of DAI for live streaming and major live events.
“We’ve been delivering dynamic ad insertion for 14 years, and today we have broadcaster customers across the world,” begins Paul Davies, head of marketing at Yospace. “Live events are the most complicated to monetise because everything happens simultaneously and the audience fluctuates so much. There are also uncertainties in the timing of breaks, for example.
“Many media organisations are anticipating lots of eyeballs on sports via streaming platforms rather than traditional TV, and every ad-funded service requires a form of dynamic ad insertion,” explains Davies. “The majority will, at some stage, need to turn their attention closely to their ad tech to make sure they are maximising the value of their advertising.”
In order to do that, according to Davies, ad-funded rightsholders need to focus on three core areas, which are viewer experience, scale and measurement.
We’re all familiar with the YouTube experience, where ads crash in unexpectedly and hit you at an exceedingly loud volume. That is simply not acceptable for a TV service, where part of the appeal for advertisers is the premium quality of content and viewing experience. Dynamic ad insertion must create a seamless transition to and from ads. Increasingly, ad insertion must support advanced playback features, such as extended DVR windows in live streaming.
Behind the scenes of every ad break, the ad-tech ecosystem is processing an eye-watering volume of data in order to maximise the value of each ad spot. Ad-tech delivers better value if it is given more time, but in an unpredictable, dynamic sports environment, time is not always on your side.
In fact, such time pressures can cause the ad server to time out, resulting in no ads delivered at all! In order to scale such complexity for mass streaming audiences, it is increasingly vital that the dynamic ad insertion technology employs an effective prefetch system that paces out the ad requests.
Finally, the piece of the puzzle that ensures rightsholders actually get paid is measurement. In the digital age, advertisers expect trusted, real-time measurement that delivers actionable insights. Live campaign dashboards enable ad ops teams to constantly adjust and monitor ad campaigns to ensure they are delivering the best results. This relies on accurate measurement of which ads have actually been viewed, as opposed to simply stitched into the stream at the server level.
These principles ring true for whichever method of ad insertion is applied, whether you’re using server-side ad insertion (SSAI) or server-guided ad insertion (SGAI). The key to achieving maximum ad revenue is to elevate the value of the ad stitching technology with features such as advanced viewer functionality, prefetch and real-time measurement.
For sports rightsholders needing to maximise ad revenues, the successful application of dynamic ad insertion technology is more crucial than ever before.
To learn more about Yospace, head to yospace.com
This sponsored editorial was first published in the Spring 2025 issue of FEED.
