Why broadcasters are doubling down on dynamic ad insertion

At the start of the year, Germany’s RTL Group announced that it was to pay €29 million for Yospace, a UK-based video technology company that had been making a name for itself in the Server-Side Dynamic Ad Insertion market.

“SSDAI is expected to become the de facto standard to seamlessly serve advertising spots in premium streaming environments,” said a company statement.

“In essence, the groundbreaking Yospace technology delivers the right advertising, at the right time, according to the rules established by the media owners.”

Dynamic ad insertion (DAI), the ability to swap out and thus target ads in linear, live or VOD content, is a market very much in its ascendency and one in which RTL is determined to become a major player. The company started building out its ad-tech stack in 2014 when it made its first investment in video ad serving platform SpotX (it bought the company outright in 2017), followed by acquiring a majority shareholding in Addressable TV specialist smartclip in 2016.

RTL Group senior vice president strategy and business development Rhys Nölke refers to these as “crucial building blocks to bring us closer to our concept of a high-quality ‘total video’ platform.

“Moving forward, Yospace will continue to…