How a CTV ad reaches your TV
Server-side ad insertion stitches ads into streams. The same trick, faked, is one of the costliest frauds in streaming.
How a CTV ad reaches your TV
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An ad break is coming
You are watching a show in a streaming app. An ad pod (a break of several ads) is due.
- An ad break is coming: You are watching a show in a streaming app. An ad pod (a break of several ads) is due.
- The server asks for ads on the TV’s behalf: With SSAI, a server, not the TV, requests the ads. It passes along the TV’s IP address and device details in the VAST request.
- The pod is sold: Buyers bid for the slots. CTV prices are high because the screen is big and the viewer is often a whole household.
- Stitched into the stream: The SSAI server stitches the ads into the video so they play smoothly, like broadcast TV. Great for viewers, but the buyer never talks to the TV directly.
- The fraud: SSAI spoofing: Because requests come from servers, a fraudster can run a server that pretends to be SSAI for millions of TVs that are not watching anything. This is SSAI spoofing. Schemes like this have faked huge volumes of requests.
- The defence: Buyers verify that SSAI servers are known and certified, check that device signals are consistent, and use standards and signed identifiers to prove a real device requested the ad.
Step by step
- An ad break is comingYou are watching a show in a streaming app. An ad pod (a break of several ads) is due.
- The server asks for ads on the TV’s behalfWith SSAI, a server, not the TV, requests the ads. It passes along the TV’s IP address and device details in the VAST request.
- The pod is soldBuyers bid for the slots. CTV prices are high because the screen is big and the viewer is often a whole household.
- Stitched into the streamThe SSAI server stitches the ads into the video so they play smoothly, like broadcast TV. Great for viewers, but the buyer never talks to the TV directly.
- The fraud: SSAI spoofingBecause requests come from servers, a fraudster can run a server that pretends to be SSAI for millions of TVs that are not watching anything. This is SSAI spoofing. Schemes like this have faked huge volumes of requests.
- The defenceBuyers verify that SSAI servers are known and certified, check that device signals are consistent, and use standards and signed identifiers to prove a real device requested the ad.