Developers

[coskel]

I'm using a JSON file (JSON Feed Manager) for my live fast channel on Direct Publisher. How do I setup a pre-roll ad to playout?

[Baradanikto]

In the early days of Direct Publisher, preroll ads were allowed by simply setting an adBreak object to "00:00:00".  Since then, Roku has changed the policy on preroll ads for some content types.  For instance, the Movie object policy is:

Movie Ad Guidelines
No adBreaks should be listed during the first 10 minutes of playback
No pre-roll ads
Noted adBreaks should occur during natural scene breaks
7 mins or more between each adBreak
No adBreaks within 8 minutes of end credits.

Having said that, there is no guidance in the Roku DP spec for LiveFeeds.  However, the Roku Partner Success site states the following:

 Where can I enable video pre-roll ads in Direct Publisher?
Pam

    3 years ago Updated 

Issue

Can't find where to enable pre-roll ads in Direct Publisher. 
Environment

Direct Publisher
Answer

Pre-roll ad logic is built into Direct Publisher, while mid-roll ads can be set within a JSON feed. You can find more information about our ad policy and frequency rules on our Ad Monetization page for Direct Publisher. 

[coskel]

Thank you, that answers the can I or can't I?

Now for the how?

Can I put a VAST tag in the JSON file and set it for 30 minutes?

[Baradanikto]

There is no construct for using a vast tag in the feed file. Ad breaks are defined using an adBreak object. Consult the DP JSON spec for more info 

[sattun · Accepted solution]

Hi @coskel,

To enable pre-roll ads in your Roku Direct Publisher channel, do the following:

1. Go to you channel's monetization section and enter your VAST url in the AD server URL (see below).

2. In your JSON feed add the ad breaks to your content (00:00:00 is for pre-roll).

3. Re-ingest your content feed and publish your channel.

Keep in mind that Roku DP has some limitations when it comes to ads,  e.g. when a viewer installs the channel, the first 15 minutes of content will be ad-free, I list all the Roku Direct Publisher limitations in the following post:

https://ottfeed.com/posts/increase-your-roku-ad-revenue-by-3x

Also, if you are looking for a robust solution to manage your content feed, then check out our OTTfeed.com platform, it will save you a lot of time and frustration managing and debugging your feed.

Here are some of the features:

• Supports all types of content (Movie, Series, Episodic, TV specials, Short-form and Live)
• Create categories and playlists and organize by tags or titles
• Preview content before publishing your feed
• Specify ad breaks for each video in addition to global ad breaks
• Build a cast library and add credits to each video
• Connect and import video metadata from Vimeo account with access token
• Supports multi-images, trickplay, closed caption, subtitles and much more
• Content feed is secure and hosted on a CDN

If you are interested go to https://OTTfeed.com and click “Start 7-day free trial”.

Cheers,

[sattun]

Here is a link to Roku Direct Publisher JSON specs:

https://developer.roku.com/docs/specs/direct-publisher-feed-specs/json-dp-spec.md

[mattk27]

Here's a SDK converter with a one-time purchase option to include a VAST Tag as well:  https://sdkconverter.com/