WS.WebTV Professional VAST Support Details | Ads/Publicity | WebTV Solutions

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About VAST...

The VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) specification was developed by IAB and is an universal XML schema for serving ads to digital video players. VAST provides a standarized especification that enables ad servers to use a single ad response format (a single XML document) across multiple publishers/video players.

Without entering into the technical details, a VAST response (XML document) tells the video player what ads are available, where to get them, how long to run then, what is the URL to follow unpon clicking on them, and what are the URLs it must use in order to track the events (views, clicks, etc.).

As for today, most ad servers support the VAST format/specification.

VAST Support Details

WS.WebTV Version
VAST is supported on WS.WebTV Professional from version 1.8.5.

VAST Version
Feeds with version 2 and 3 are supported. Please note that some features of VAST 3 are not supported (like Ad Pods, sequences, etc.).

Tag/URL waterfalling
Allows you to use several VAST Tag URLs (separated by comma) to incresase the fill rate.

"Linear" Ads support (video Ads)
Integrated with the WS.WebTV Pro Ads functionality. Ad insertion according to the WebTV's Ad policies. Ad skipping according to the VAST "skipoffset" setting or (when the setting is not specified in the VAST feed) according to the Ad settings in the WebTV. Supported media formats on Flash: FLV, MP4. Supported media formats on HTML5: MP4, WEBM. Supported delivery method: "progressive".

"NonLinear" Ads support (overlays/banners over video)
Through ClipInteractivity+ extension. Ad insertion according to the Interactivity insertion settings in the WebTV. Ad duration according to the VAST "minSuggestedDuration" setting or (when the setting is not specified in the VAST feed) according to the Interactivity settings in the WebTV. Clickable link for the banner/overlay: The URL specified in the VAST feed ("NonLinearClickThrough") will always be used. Supported formats: PNG, JPG, GIF ("StaticResource").

Tag URL macro/variable support
The following macros/variables are supported in VAST Tag URLs: url=[referrer_url], %%REFERRER_URL_ESC_ESC%%, [url], [clipTitle], %%VIDEO_TITLE%%, [clipID], %%VIDEO_ID%%, correlator=[timestamp], [correlator], scor=[timestamp], [timestamp], [TIMESTAMP], [CACHEBUSTING], [CACHE_BREAKER], [RANDOM], %%CACHEBUSTER%%, [playerwidth], [playerheight]

Supported Linear Ad (video Ad) tracking/events
• ClickThrough: Inline.
• ClickTracking: InLine + Wrapper.
• Impression: InLine + Wrapper.
• Events (InLine + Wrapper): creativeView, start, firstQuartile, midpoint, thirdQuartile, complete, pause, resume, fullscreen/expand, exitFullscreen/collapse, skip.

Supported NonLinear Ad (banner overlay) tracking/events
• NonLinearClickThrough: Inline.
• NonLinearClickTracking: InLine + Wrapper.
• Impression: InLine + Wrapper.
• Events (InLine + Wrapper): creativeView, fullscreen/expand, exitFullscreen/collapse, close.