Verizon Media has announced a series of new Media Platform enhancements designed to evolve the live streaming experience. These include several new capabilities that provide deeper fan engagement for live sports and services that address every streaming need. Additionally, the company has launched Smartplay Prebid’s first integration with the Verizon Media Ad Platforms’ OTT Smart Auction.
To introduce real-time capabilities, Verizon Media has partnered with Phenix Real Time Solutions, marrying Verizon Media’s global network, edge computing, and ad insertion expertise with Phenix’s real-time streaming technology to enable sub-second latency for live sports at scale. This capability has been critical in developing new services required by broadcasters, rights owners, sports teams and leagues to deliver live sports in the stadium and to people’s homes.
First, multi-camera viewing makes remote sporting events more like in-venue experiences with the ability to see plays from any angle, immersing fans into the action. Real-time streaming also provides viewers with brand new ‘watch together’ social experiences, such as co-viewing synchronized live streams, in-game trivia, and even wagering, allowing fans to host virtual watch parties with family and friends. Yahoo Sports is an early example of a Verizon Media customer using these real-time streaming features.
“The global pandemic has limited in-person attendance for most major events, yet sports fans remain hungry for live sports,” said Ariff Sidi, general manager and chief product officer at Verizon Media. “Sports broadcasters and teams are really working hard to engage their die-hard fans and maintain engagement and loyalty in the face of competing at-home entertainment options.”
Smartplay Prebid is an innovative ad insertion technology for long-form video with TV-style ad breaks. It enables demand partners to bid on ad space simultaneously and have those bids evaluated alongside other ad buys, leveraging the open-source prebid server technology. The Ad Platforms division within Verizon Media recently launched OTT Smart Auction, a header bidding-like solution for premium OTT publishers that delivers programmatic video advertising from a vast array of demand sources. OTT Smart Auction is the first solution in the industry to integrate with Smartplay Prebid, and together they work to drive higher ad revenue for premium content publishers
“Smartplay Prebid and OTT Smart Auction give broadcasters more flexibility to choose programmatic demand sources to increase fill rates and optimize yield,” added Sidi. “Additionally, the data that Smartplay generates provides content owners with greater visibility into ad workflows and performance, which allows them to work with demand partners to optimize and improve monetization strategies.”
