Publisher guides
Monetizing CTV and FAST inventory — ad pod strategy, SSAI, yield optimization, and brand safety for publishers.
19 articles in Publisher
CTV Ad Category Blocking: What bcat Really Blocks
OpenRTB defaults to a deprecated taxonomy with no gambling or crypto codes. How bcat, badv and cattax work, where CTV block lists leak, and how to close them.
CTV Ad Avails: How to Measure Your Real Inventory
Ad requests are not avails. How to filter, split and report a channel's real CTV inventory, count unique households and turn it into a forecast.
Selling Ads Directly on Your FAST Channel
What a direct-sold CTV campaign needs to serve: a playable creative, channels, pacing and targeting. Plus the defects we fixed and a live test.
CDN for CTV Ads: What to Cache, What to Keep Off
Put CTV ad media on a CDN, keep VAST, beacons and SSAI manifests off it. The caching rules, two near-outages and a DNS mistake from our own cutover.
SSAI Tracking: Server-Side vs Client-Side Beacons
Server-side SSAI beacons fire when segments are fetched, not watched. How server and client tracking differ, and three problems both must solve.
SCTE-35 in HLS: What Breaks When You Stitch Live
Reading the SCTE-35 cue is easy. Filling the break, keeping HLS sequence numbers monotonic and deciding once across variants is where live SSAI fails.
VAST Error Codes in CTV: Which Ones Cost Money
Error 303 is usually no-fill. Errors 401 to 405 are won ads that never played. How to price each VAST error code in CTV, and who owns the fix.
Your CTV Fill Rate Says 94%. Revenue Says 80%.
Fill rate counts ads returned, not ads played. The gap between them is unmeasured CTV revenue, and four specific failures cause it every month.
VAST 4.2 Guide for CTV Publishers
VAST 4.2 formalizes the fields DSPs and verification vendors require for CTV. What publishers need to implement, validate, and test before launch.
CTV Header Bidding: Server-Side Parallel Demand
Web header bidding does not translate directly to CTV — SSAI latency constraints require server-side parallel demand architecture, not client-side auctions.
CTV News Advertising: Brand Safety and Value
News CTV inventory reaches affluent, educated, financially engaged streaming audiences, but categorical brand safety exclusions shape who can buy it.
CTV Kids Advertising and COPPA Compliance
COPPA prohibits behavioral advertising on CTV apps directed to children under 13. What the law requires and how publishers configure kids content.
CTV Ad Pod Strategy: Structuring Breaks for Yield
Pod length, slot position pricing, competitive separation, and SSAI manifest design: the playbook for CTV publishers maximizing revenue per break.
FAST Channel Yield Optimization: The eCPM Playbook
Waterfall architecture, floor pricing by daypart, identity enrichment, and demand mix strategy for FAST operators closing the gap to premium CPMs.
SSAI Explained: Server-Side Ad Insertion in CTV
Server-side ad insertion stitches ads into the HLS or DASH manifest before the player receives it, making ads unblockable and playback seamless.
FAST Channel Monetization: The Complete Playbook
FAST channel revenue depends on demand mix, floor pricing by daypart, identity enrichment, and SSAI configuration — not just ad load, as this guide shows.
VMAP Guide for CTV Publishers: Ad Break Setup
VMAP structure, SSAI integration, break offset types, live SCTE-35 interaction, fallback configuration, and a QA checklist for publishers implementing it.
CTV Live Sports Advertising: Delivery and Yield
Live sports is the highest-CPM inventory in CTV and the most operationally demanding: SCTE-35 break detection, pod strategy, and sponsorship packaging.
CTV Supply Path Optimization Explained
Supply path optimization in CTV means more than trimming SSP hops: app-ads.txt, sellers.json, schain objects, latency budgets, and inventory quality.