Yospace has provided UTV Television with its dynamic advertising replacement solution to live stream content on its UTV Player and apps throughout Ireland.

The challenge is to splice the replacement commercial spots into the stream seamlessly, so that the viewer is not distracted by freezes and delays.The Yospace solution is unique in providing in-stream advertising replacement with seamless transitions between the main content and the commercials.To achieve this, the content is spliced into the stream on the server side, and timed through a direct interface to the broadcast playout automation system. The result is a viewing experience which has the professional seamless quality of the live broadcast, but contains video ads which can be targeted, tracked and monetised.“Like all broadcasters, our online services are increasingly popular with our viewers, and are a valuable opportunity for our advertisers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,” said Morgane Campioni, Director of Online Channels at UTV.“User satisfaction and engagement were top priorities for the service from the outset and those priorities have influenced the entire development process.”Yospace, the leading name in dynamic advertising replacement, implemented a complete end-to-end solution, including the company’s ESAM (Event Signalling And Management) server. This provided the link between UTV’s playout automation system and the Yospace DAI platform. By knowing the precise timing and duration of commercial breaks in advance individual ad calls can be made completely seamlessly. The selection of the individual commercials is made by UTV’s existing ad:tech system, again with a direct link into Yospace for fulfilment.“The Yospace solution is modular and highly scalable, so can be integrated with existing OTT infrastructure, or deployed as an end to end solution as was the case in the UTV project,” said Tim Sewell, CEO of Yospace. “The core requirements for any broadcaster will always be the same: it must be absolutely reliable and stable enough to cope with huge surges in demand, and ready to deal with the unpredictability of live streaming of sports and other popular events.”UTV’s live streaming service is proving hugely popular with viewers, and offers content through the broadcaster’s UTV Player across web, iOS and Android devices.The UTV Player apps are available free of charge, to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play in the UK and Ireland.