FreeWheel is the leading provider of the enterprise level solutions the premium video economy needs to thrive in the evolving media landscape. Through superior end-to-end technology, a premium marketplace, and best in market services, FreeWheel powers the advertising businesses of the largest media and entertainment companies in the world. From the unique position as the center of the premium video economy, FreeWheel enables premium video publishers to holistically manage their ad businesses and maximize the value of their content across all screens, including desktop, mobile, OTT, and traditional STB devices.
FreeWheel has partnered with Comcast Technology Solutions to create an integration that allows for full utilization of FreeWheel’s MRM interface and ad management platform. Upon loading the FreeWheel plugin into a player, the customer has the ability to monetize video streams with a multitude of ad formats. Ad slots can be added dynamically from the Cloud Video Platform (fka mpx) via cue-points or predefined via FreeWheel’s MRM interface.
The plugin works by integrating FreeWheel’s AdManager with the Cloud Video Platform player APIs, allowing for seamless communication between the two technologies. Once the AdManager is initialized, it gains access to metadata identifying the video that is going to be played. With this information, the Ad Manager will request a schedule of ads for the video that is about to start. Once ads are selected and returned by the FreeWheel AdServer, the plugin registers both the pre-roll and the post-roll with the player in the form of a clipWrapper object that the player will call at the proper time.
While the video is playing, the Ad Manager listens for cue-points from the Cloud Video Platform player and proceeds to play any associated ads that are booked at those times. The plugin will pause the content video and render the ad over it for the user. Upon completion of the ad, the ad is removed from the stage and main video content resumes for the user. At the end of the stream, if a clipWrapper object was created for that stream, Cloud Video Platform will invoke the object and FreeWheel will play the associated post-roll slot.
Companion ads can also be accommodated via the plugin. To accomplish this, the publisher embeds FreeWheel HTML tags in the page. Ad Manager will automatically find these tags and display any ads associated with them. No extra code from the player/plugin is required.
