Virtual Zoning Ecosystem
The ecosystem for virtual zoning is depicted in Figure 5, below.
Figure 5 - A virtual zoning ecosystem
In the ecosystem shown in Figure 5, linear channel content is coming into a Media Services Platform. The Media Services Platform creates multiple streams, each destined to an individual Service Group. During an ad break, the Media Services Platform may insert an ad from a traditional linear ad system using the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) 30 standard and apply it to all virtual zones, or use the emerging SCTE 130 standard to splice multiple ad versions and associate each Service Group with the appropriate ad version based on the instructions provided by the Ad Decision Service (ADS), hence creating virtual zones that are not simply geographic, but rather combined small geography with demographic profiling.
The ability to provide both SCTE 30 and SCTE 130 insertions within the same channel allows the operator to gradually migrate inventory from zoned to virtual zone delivery while protecting the current revenue stream.
Getting to 1:1 Granularity with Linear Unicast
The main advantage of Virtual zoning is in its ability to provide cable operators with additional addressability and associated revenues, while requiring modest CAPEX.
However, virtual zoning does not provide the full addressability potential for cable. In order to reap the full ad premium, 1:1 addressability is the desired model. This means being able to match ad versions to subscribers on a household or tuner level rather than based on Service Groups.
In order to provide 1:1 addressability and to avoid going through complex integrations in the set-top box, MSOs need to transition to a unicast stream delivery model. In a linear unicast stream delivery model, each subscriber is getting his or her dedicated stream even if multiple subscribers are watching the same channel.
Delivering a dedicated stream to a subscriber allows for placement of specific ad versions or even customized ad versions per subscriber. Linear unicast also allows for other video personalization enhancements such as personalized overlays, mosaics, messages and tickers.
NEXT: Linear Unicast Ecosystem
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