Ad Skip Ban. Principles

SmartTUBE offers a feature that allows you to control and restrict subscribers from skipping ads while watching or fast-forwarding TSTV/Pause Live/nPVR content. This article shedding light on the under-the-hood logic — from the import of start/end marks of ad blocks to the application of feature settings within the SmartTUBE apps.

Detailed instructions on configuring this feature can be found in the “Ad Skip Ban. Configuring” article.

Processing Logic

The feature relies on ad timestamps provided by a third-party program provider. The data undergoes processing through the following sequence of SmartLabs platform components:

1. The program provider publishes on his FTP server the CSV files with the start/end marks of ad blocks for each channel for the current day. CSV files must be located in symlinks with names equal to the External ID of the channel in the SmartTUBE database (see the field SmartTUBE Admin Console > Channels > Channels > [channel details] > External ID). The name of the CSV files can be arbitrary — only the newest files in the symlinks are downloaded.Example of file format with 3 marks:

where

• • RBx: ID of the ad block
  • First timestamp: Start of the ad block (UTC)
  • Second timestamp: End of the ad block (UTC)

2. Files are collected from the server at specified intervals using a job configured on the SmartTUBE SDP side.
3. Ads data is written to DB.
4. SmartMEDIA server retrieves ads data from DB and adds it into the channel metadata file (metadata.json).
5. The SmartTUBE app, when initiating playback of TSTV/Pause Live/nPVR content, requests a metadata file (typical URI: http[s]://mfe_host/protocol_name/channel_ID/metadata.json) and implements the following logic:
   • Prohibition of ad skipping during stream watching or fast-forwarding.
   • Enable/disable ad processing for specified channels.
   • Displaying the timer indicating the remaining seconds during ad playback in the full-screen player.
   • Displaying notifications about the inability to skip ads in the full-screen player.
   • Disabling the “Ad Skip Ban” feature:
   • For 5 minutes or less before the Live broadcast.
   • For N minutes after each ad block.
   • During backwinding.
   • For test accounts.

Depending on your business objectives and content broadcasting conditions, you can propose changes to this logic. The SmartLabs Development Team is open to discussion and aims to meet your specific requirements.