Source: www.lightningcast.com
Topic: Forecasting
Sort Desciption: Inventory Forecasting for Streaming Media Mark Westling Lightningcast Inc. 11 April 2005 Summary ... need to adjust it unless the business rules change. The fundamental problem of inventory management ...
Content Inside: Inventory Forecasting for Streaming Media Mark Westling Lightningcast Inc. 11 April 2005 Summary . Inventory forecasting for streaming media depends on two factors: audience size and delivery rate. The nature of the streambroadcast or on-demanddetermines how these factors are expressed. For broadcast streams audience is expressed in cumulative minutes on a stream and delivery rate is expressed as the number of ads in a given time period. For on-demand streams the audience size may be expressed in terms of number of content requests and the delivery rate may be expressed as the average number of ads per request. However with the exception of how these numbers are gathered the basic calculations are the same. This paper explains the differences and similarities in forecasting inventory for these two types of stream. Background Advertising is often sold in terms of impressions where an impression is defined as the delivery of a single ad to a single user at some point in time. Inventory refers to the number of potential impression deliveries (sometimes referred to as just "deliveries") over some time span. Available inventory is the inventory minus impressions reserved for existing or planned campaigns. An advertiser specifies an ad campaign using the following criteria: 1. A desired number of impressions to deliver 2. A range of dates 3. Days and hours during which the ad will be delivered (i.e. dayparts) 4. A set of streams targeted by the campaign 5. An audience segment targeted by the campaign 6. Any limit on the number of times the ad can be delivered to each unique user (i.e. frequency capping) These criteria are set by an advertiser. Additionally the content provider has control over the following: 1. The delivery rate of ads. In radio jargon this is often called the spot load and is typically expressed in ads per hour. & ...
impression inventory forecasting