Vidgyor’s Adtech launches AI/ML Platform To enhance Ad Revenue For TV Broadcasters, OTT Platforms

Media
ravi
July 28, 2020
5 minutes read

News and Sports channels, even in today’s world lack fixed ad break schedules in their channels, and they are also not equipped with the technology to insert digital ad-makers which are in sync with their dynamic ad-break schedules. In such circumstances, Khan, and his cofounder Parth Desai are working towards bringing this technology to TV broadcasters worldwide. Khan comes from Yahoo! Where he had gained experience in content recognition technology and computer vision in order to create Vidgyor’s flagship V-Spot algorithm which can by itself, detect and insert digital ad-markers during TV ad-breaks using AI (artificial intelligence) & ML (machine learning) in real-time.

Apart from the V-Spot, the startup is into offering many other solutions, products, and services to its clients, such as:

Products: Enabling live streaming ad-monetization using V-Flows (client-side ad-insertion), V-Fusion (server-side ad-insertion), and V-Alchemy (in-feed ad-insertion) and more.
Services: V-Plex and V-Stream (downlinking, encoding/transcoding, ad-marking, OTT apps, such as FireTV app and Android App for TV9, and more)
Ad-monetization: V-Dart (video ad marketplace)

The company extends its reach to both TV channels and OTT platforms., but the pandemic has brought a good business from the latter than the former. In the last few months, the company has joined hands with new TV channels as partners which happened because of the increment of broadcasters’ attention towards OTT. The challenges of the current situation stand inevitable and cannot be denied. “It has led to cuts in digital video advertising budgets from programmatic and advertiser partners,” said Khan. The OTT platforms have proved to be a boon for their business and the pandemic has increased their viewership rates significantly. With restriction to watch movies in movie theatres, people are turning their heads towards the various OTT platforms available which are now also used for film releases.

With such good audience response towards the OTT platforms, it is all set to witness a growth of 21.8% CAGR and reach INR 11,976 Cr by 2023, as indicated by PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019–2023. A report as per KPMG reveals that India which has recorded of being the second-largest mobile data consumer in the world, will have 500 Mn online video subscribers by FY2023, the increasing number of users in the platform is a sign that the platforms need to work towards building up their ad capabilities. Brands in the wake of increased viewership in OTT platforms have also started to move towards these platforms to endorse their products, with the aim to attract their target customers and get a better viewership. These platforms bring a range of opportunities for advertisers and brands as well. Khan said, “Our media channel partners were carrying the same set of TV advertisements during ad-breaks on digital streaming platforms and OTT. There was no scope of personalization or specific targeting, Thus, causing revenue loss to both TV broadcasters and OTT platforms”.

Vidgyor in its effort to ensure that its services are always up and running has partnered with cloud infrastructure services providers, one of them is DigitalOcean, for smart storage and server solutions. It becomes of utmost importance for a startup to partner with cloud service providers as they form a vital part in attaining the target of uninterrupted operations, infrastructure provisioning, management, maintenance, and much more. In addition to it cloud-based tech operations assist startups to become more cost-efficient in the long run, and also cut down any spending done in technology and eventually help them to progress. .

Khan said that leveraging cloud technology to build its ad tech products is one of the most important facets for all video streaming companies. He added, “Cloud computing helps us scale our services and work on a pay as you go model without upfront costs.”

The startup is currently working with more than 70 TV channels and OTT platforms, Some well-known names are Indiatoday, NDTV, Republic TV, Network18, Times Now, ABP, Zee, India TV, TV9, Asianet, etc. Hotstar, Zee5, SonyLiv, MX Player and more

The company who is an expert in the field of AI and ML is also investing in new products such as smart video publishing and contextual advertising. The start-up also has the capacity to add subtitles of different languages on Live news broadcasts. “Our V-Dart ad tech platform analyzes videos using computer vision techniques such as object, scene, activity, brand logo, face detection for identifying contextually relevant video ad placements opportunities. This enables advertisers to deliver when the user is most engaged while ensuring compliance and brand safety”, added Khan. Khan is now totally involved with Vidgyor’s operations, its use of cloud computing, and also the impact of the current crisis on its business.