To help broadcasters deal with device proliferation, Adobe expanded its Project Primetime platform with both the addition of an ad insertion option and a new player technology that lets programmers handle streaming, rights and content prep for all devices, Adobe says.
Beet.TV spoke to Jeremy Helfand, VP Monetization at Adobe, about the new features and how programmers can use them.
The overarching goal with the new features is to make the digital delivery of programming more like TV so consumers can be most engaged with the content and ads, he says. “What we hear in the marketplace is that device fragmentation is a real challenge,” Helfand says to Beet.TV.
The Primetime Media Player is designed to deliver both content and ads across devices with a single workflow, and it supports desktop, laptop and mobile apps for both Android and iOS phones. Support for mobile browsers and over-the-top devices will come next, he says. The technology also includes monetization and analytics tools.
The ad insertion service, dubbed MediaWeaver, lets content owners insert ads in all types of online video, including live and on-demand. Adobe is having conversations with major programmers and content distributors about the tools, Helfand says.
“As there is a growing need for long-form professional content being delivered across devices, what we have heard is verison 1.0 solutions for ad serving don’t really address the needs for where the marketplace is going,” he says. The MediaWeaver technology is designed to mirror a TV environment with “seamless switching” between content and ads scross devices, he says.
Adobe worked with both the BBC and NBC on the Olympics this summer to deliver nearly 90 million authenticated streams via Adobe Pass. “We saw a real consumer demand to deliver content on devices and on TV, and we learned a lot about how consumers are using both desktop as well as devices from a time-shifting perspective…and we learned about which devices are used at different times,” he says. All that learning has helped inform the new features in Project Primetime, he adds.
More on this develpment reported on StreamingMedia.com
Daisy Whitney
