It can be frustrating when you're watching a TV show or movie, and just as a crucial moment occurs, the program cuts to an ad, right? This experience can be more pronounced in an online environment, where ads sometimes come in too early or too late in the scene.
When we receive content from our suppliers, the chapter markers for when to insert an ad break are typically provided by the distributor and added to our content system. One reason for an ad break starting too soon or cutting off part of a scene is that the ad chapter point may have been incorrectly added.
Even if the ad chapter marker is correctly placed, it doesn't always guarantee that the ad break will start at the perfect moment within the scene.
SBS On Demand uses adaptive streaming technology to ensure the video stream remains as consistent as possible, even if your home network is unstable. This technology adjusts the video quality based on your network conditions throughout the video. If you have fast internet, you'll get the highest video quality; if your network is slow or temporarily drops, the video quality will adjust to avoid buffering. In adaptive streaming, the video is encoded into "segments" of varying quality (or "bit rates"), which allows the stream to switch between higher or lower bit rates based on your network speed.
To deliver ads on SBS On Demand, we use a technology called 'Server-Side Ad Insertion' and a tool provided by Google called 'Google DAI'. With Google DAI, when the server locates the ad chapter markers, it splits the video stream to insert ads, but this can only happen at specific frames called "keyframes." However, keyframes don’t always line up exactly with the start of a video segment, which can cause issues where the scene is interrupted or cut off.
Please rest assured, our teams are working to improve the ad insertion experience on SBS On Demand. We welcome audience feedback! If you've noticed ads cutting in too soon or too late, please contact our Customer Service team.