• by Alex Weprin , September 21, 2018

Live streaming video presents significant new opportunities for both content companies and marketers, but adoption and technical challenges need to be overcome in order to fully unlock that potential.

A new white paper from the video advertising platform SpotX, digital video distribution company Yospace and the digital content delivery network Akamai examines the state of live video streaming, and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

"Big events attract tens of millions of viewers, all reaching scheduled and unexpected ad breaks at the same time,” the report says. “Delivering a custom ad to every viewer places demands on the ad ecosystem that have never been seen before.”

The companies argue that new technologies, such as Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) and pre-fetching techniques, in which ads for the next ad break are pulled in ahead of time, could be a viable solution to make a better consumer experience, and a more reliable experience for marketers.

"Live event streaming is the single biggest opportunity and challenge for advertisers and media owners now and for the foreseeable future," Mike Shehan, cofounder-CEO at SpotX, tells Digital News Daily.

"Our white paper with Yospace and Akamai explores all the technical complexities involved and what both media owners and sellers need to think about, if they're interested in connecting with audiences around live events and monetizing at scale.”

Live and linear video streaming is projected to grow over the coming years. That makes developing more reliable content and advertising delivery platforms a top priority for players in the space.

You can read the white paper here.