NAB, Las Vegas , Booth SU 8503: 25 Hearst-owned stations in the USA are now delivering short-form content, including news stories, to all mobile devices using a cloud service from Yospace, the global leader in distributing video content to multiple platforms. The Yospace technology links into the broadcaster’s advertising response server to ensure pre-roll advertising is targeted to the user, strengthening the revenue-earning opportunities.

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News stories and other clips are uploaded to the Yospace service, together with local and national advertising. The content is then presented via apps across Hearst Television’s key SmartPhone platforms , and via their corresponding Mobile Internet sites. Once a request for content is received the Yospace service detects the device, sets the video format and wrapper accordingly, splices in the tailored pre-roll commercial as defined by the broadcaster’s advertising system, and streams it out. All this preparation is handled virtually instantaneously so the consumer notices no latency in delivery.“We wanted a system that would allow us to throw any sort of video clip and get mobile-optimised delivery for all platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android and Mobile Internet,” said Michael Rosellini, Director Digital Product Development of Hearst Television. “We wanted something that was self-service, and with Yospace’s web portal we can manage the whole service ourselves.“The ability to manage pre-roll advertising was important, too,” Rosellini added. “We can either handle pre-rolls through the Yospace content management system or through Google DFP, giving us two options. The service from Yospace means we can easily get much more video available to our mobile users, with more advanced targeting of pre-roll advertising and easier workflow, which should result in monetisation growing too.”The technology is hosted in a Yospace cloud software as a service application, making it fully scalable as the success of the mobile applications grows rapidly, and much more content is added every day. The system has been live in 25 Hearst markets since January 2012.“Broadcasters recognise the challenges of delivering a rich and flawless experience to mobile apps, but achieving the quality of user experience they want for their audiences has until now had an impact on costs, manpower and workflows,” said Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace. “Our cloud services take all those challenges away: we simply take a feed of the content and commercials, and we handle the management, seamless splicing and delivery in systems which readily scale up as audience demand for content on mobiles escalates.“Hearst understood the power of our solution early on, not just as a means of outsourcing the service but in delivering the quality of experience they want to maintain,” Sewell added.Visitors to NAB (Las Vegas Convention Center, 16 – 19 April) can see Yospace’s solutions for multi-platform delivery and seamless ad replacement on booth SU 8503.