How to Choose an SSAI Provider: The 7-Pointer Checklist for Broadcasters, FAST & CTV/OTT Apps

When does a live stream get overwhelmed and break? Live sports, reality show finales, and news are some use cases that can cause a sudden spike in viewership, breaking your ad stack and your ad delivery. The result is not just a loss in ad revenue but also in brand credibility and customer experience. These sudden surges in demand are why Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) is so important for livestreams.

Why does SSAI matter so much?

SSAI, in contrast to client-side ad insertion (CSAI), pushes ad decisioning on the server side and stitches ads on the content stream itself, thus improving mid-roll reliability and big-screen UX while passing device/session context to buyers. For broadcasters and FAST/CTV apps, it’s the path to smooth pods, fewer playback errors, and consistent measurement if you pick a provider that plays by the standards.

If you are looking for an SSAI provider, here is a useful checklist that can help you evaluate and select the best out of the lot.

1) VAST and VMAP Support, documented and tested.

Why: Interop and pod control.

What good looks like: In SSAI, you don’t control the player; therefore, it is essential to have full VAST 4.3 handling capability with VMAP for defining breaks. Get proof via POCs that integrate with your existing stack.

2) SCTE-35 (and/or 104) cueing preserved end-to-end

Why: Clean splice points for live and linear streams..

What good looks like: Your SSAI should be able to ingest, transform, and preserve SCTE-35 through HLS/DASH packaging.

3) Pod assembly controls (length, separation, deduplication)

Why: The UX and Yield will be driven by pod logic

What good looks like: You will get the ability to configure pod duration and customize brand/category separation, as well as pod sequencing. The system will also enable a clear mapping to VMAP/Open RTB signals in manifests.

4) Data governance & privacy

Why: CTV is largely ID-less; IP/device signals must be handled carefully.

What good looks like: Documented policies for data flow, IP handling and access controls There should be an alignment in all policies of the provider and its partner ecosystem.

5) Supply-path hygiene: ads.txt / app-ads.txt + sellers.json

Why: Cuts spoofing and buyer friction, critical for CTV apps.

What good looks like:  Ads.txt for apps and sites should be up to date.andsellers.json entries should be visible. The SSAI user must be provided with knowledge of the CTV inventory-sharing mechanism and the live aggregators.

6) Live Scale: Handling of high-concurrency events?

Why: Concurrency spikes break fragile systems.

What good looks like: Ability to detect and overcome multi-region failover. The system should have prefetch/caching, along with published load tests.

7) SLAs + observability (not just uptime)

Why: You need latency budgets and fast failover during ad breaks.

What good looks like: SLAs for decision latency per break, manifest-rewrite timing, incident communications, and log-level exports into your BI stack.

Do you want to know more about what a credible, high-performing SSAI system looks like?

Want every ad break to perform perfectly, no matter the scale? See how Aniview’s SSAI makes it happen.

Request a Demo now!