Together TV
Together TV is the social change broadcaster brought to UK viewers by the Community Channel, a supporter-owned TV channel established in 2000. With content from most UK broadcasters, Together TV breathes new life into what a TV channel can be on various platforms, including HbbTV on the British Terrestrial network. The application brings viewers the same live and video-on-demand content as its website counterpart, keeping familiarity in content categories, look-and-feel, and navigation. Live streaming and VOD viewing benefit from added commercial revenue thanks to modern ad insertion and ad-stitching techniques.
Description
When zapping to the Together TV DVB channel, the application launches the live DASH stream, and a pop-up advertises to the users the existence of the portal itself, accessible via the GREEN button on the remote control, at any time. By tapping on the GREEN button, viewers are brought to the channel's full-screen portal, with a look-and-feel that follows the website design. Large but optimized thumbnails and speedy swim lanes allow viewers to quickly find a category of series or documentaries to watch, conveniently placed on the top of the screen for easier, immediate access. Together TV's editorial team groups the recommendations on the home page daily, providing endless variety to the viewers. Together TV asked DOTSCREEN and Red Bee Media, working together as the content distributor - for ways to generate such revenue on the HbbTV platform. It was quickly established that a working and novel opportunity (for the UK network) consisted of having both live and VOD streams that would be HbbTV-compliant and still carry advertising via Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI). In contrast to CSAI (Client-Side Ad Insertion), where a devices video player requests ads when reaching specific ad markers in the stream or the DASH manifest, SSAI works by inserting (or stitching) the ad media directly into the video stream. This approach avoids making added calls to servers to receive those ads. Especially in low-performance devices, the switch from content to advertising and back can be noticeable and not as seamless as in the linear broadcast experience.
Impact
With the support of DOTSCREEN, Red Bee Media and Nowtilus in Germany, Together TV can now live stream with an SSAI-supported DASH manifest to HbbTV devices. The transcoding process delivers a buffer-free transition from content to ads and back again whilst providing the same user experience as broadcast TV. This solution is a first on the British Digital Terrestrial live TV network.
Screens
