Video Advertisements- Tell me more!

As the playback of online video content increases in popularity, video publishers are looking to monetize their content via instream video content. The growth of online video has been accompanied by a steep rise in the amount of money advertisers are interested in spending on video ads

As of version 2.1.0 (released this week, check out the blog post for more details!), Azure Media Player supports the insertion of linear advertisements for pre-roll (before regular content), mid-roll (during regular content) and post-roll (after regular content) for video on demand. These linear video advertisements are fetched and inserted into your content using the VAST standard.

Check out our demo for NAB!

To learn more about the Interactive Advertisement Bureau and some advertisement standards.

How do I start inserting ads into my stream?

To enable ads, first update your version of Azure Media Player version to 2.1.0 or higher as older versions of AMP do not support ads.
Next, configure and generate your ad tags from a VAST compliant ad server like OpenX or AdButler. You can use that ad tag in your player options so Azure Media Player knows where to request the ad from.

Configuring a pre-roll is as simple as:

	ampAds:{
                preRoll: {
                    sourceUri: ‘[VAST_FILE.xml]',
                        options: 
					{
                        skipAd: 
						{
                            enabled: true,
                            offset:5
                        }
                    }                                
                },

This will insert a pre-roll ad requested from the sourceUri that is skippable after 5 seconds. You can find a more complex sample  with pre- mid- and post-rolls here.

Interested in Live Ad insertion?

If you are a customer interested in leveraging live ad insertion with Azure Media Serviced content and Azure Media Player, keep an eye out for my blog post coming out next week on how to insert video ads into your AMS streams on the fly. You can also contact us at ampinfo@microsoft.com to test out the Live Ad Insertion (Now in Preview!)

Calling all ad servers!

If you are an ad server and are interested in developing a custom plugin that supports ad insertion with AMP, please contact ampinfo@microsoft.com.

Providing feedback

As Azure Media Player continues to grow, evolve, and add additional features/enabling new scenarios, you can request new features, provide ideas or feedback via UserVoice. If you have and specific issues, questions or find any bugs, drop us a line at ampinfo@microsoft.com.

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