CTV monetization: your ad breaks, filled and paying for themselves.

All three models put ads into a stream. Where the work happens, on the server, on the device, or split between the two, changes almost everything about how the break behaves.

Client-side ad insertion (CSAI)

With CSAI the ad decision happens on the viewer’s device. Content pauses, an SDK fetches the ad, a second player renders it, and content resumes. That can work well inside one big app with an engineering team behind it. It also means shipping and maintaining an SDK on every platform you care about, and every handoff between players is a chance to buffer. Because the ad request leaves the device in plain sight, ad blockers can kill it, which is why CSAI fill on the web is so unreliable.

Server-side ad insertion (SSAI)

With SSAI the ad is stitched into the stream before it ever reaches the device. The player sees one continuous HLS feed at one quality ladder, so a break looks like broadcast: no spinner, no volume jump, no separate ad player. It behaves identically in a smart-TV app, a browser tab, and VLC, because the player has nothing extra to do. And since no ad request ever leaves the device, there is nothing for a blocker to intercept.

Server-guided ad insertion (SGAI)

SGAI is the newest of the three, built on HLS interstitials. The server still makes the ad decision and marks exactly where the break goes, but instead of splicing the ad into the stream it hands the player a pointer, and the player fetches the ad itself when the cue arrives. That keeps content segments cacheable while allowing per-viewer ads, and it gives buyers the client-side beacons they are used to. The catch is in the fine print: interstitials need player support, and across the long tail of devices a linear channel lives on, that support is still arriving. The ad fetch also comes from the device again, which reopens the door blockers walked through in CSAI.

Why linear channels choose SSAI

A 24/7 channel gets watched on whatever can decode HLS, including players you will never ship code to. SSAI is the one insertion model that monetizes all of them the same way today, which is why the major FAST platforms run their breaks server-side. SGAI is worth watching as interstitial support spreads through players; until it does, stitched breaks are what monetize the whole audience, and they are the only model LIVEPLUSTV uses.

Most ad serving is billed on requests made or opportunities offered. We bill on the ad leaving the delivery edge for a real viewer. If a break is cued and your ad source returns nothing, you pay nothing. If an ad comes back but no player ever fetches it, you pay nothing. The $1 per 1,000 rate applies only to impressions the delivery log can prove. What a break is, who may fill it and when it returns all come from the SCTE-35 signalling underneath.

The same log backs your advertiser conversations. Every channel keeps as-run records of what played and when, next to impression, fill, and revenue reporting in the analytics dashboard, so the number on your invoice is the number the infrastructure measured.