Future of Streaming Ads: LinqTV's Advanced Ad Architecture Explained

Until a few years back, “Ads” was a not-so-positive term in streaming. Many streaming platforms, including the most premium ones like Netflix and Amazon Prime Videos, used to boost their “Ad-Free” services, calling it “premium class”. But, in 2024, the tables have turned completely!

The same streaming platforms are now “thinking out of the box” to come up with ad-supported streaming tires, making “HVOD” a trending term overnight. And do you know the main reason behind this massive shift? It’s because the preferences of the audience have shifted.

A study by Magna Global found that 68% of consumers were more receptive to ads on streaming services in 2023. Maybe that is why, PwC, in a report, stated that spending on digital video advertising is expected to grow by 12.2% through 2025.

Hence, for new streaming entrepreneurs, ad-based monetization is no longer a choice, rather it’s a necessity. And at LinqTV, we are working day and night to simplify ad monetization so that you can excel in AdTech easily!

The AdTech landscape is quite vast, involving multiple players. It is a bit complex for beginners, but to succeed as a streaming entrepreneur, you need to understand its nitty-gritty. The players involved in it are depicted in the diagram below.

So, it all starts with the Publisher. Publishers are those websites, mobile apps, or streaming services that offer ad space on their platforms. So, when you are creating your video streaming platform with LinqTV, LinqTV will be the publisher here, but the revenues generated will be solely yours!

On the other end, we have the Advertisers. These are businesses looking to promote their products or services. But they need the help of Ad Agencies for the same. These Agencies act as intermediaries between advertisers and various other players in the AdTech ecosystem. They offer services like campaign planning, media buying and negotiation, creative development, and performance analytics.

Now, these agencies have Agency Trading Desks or ATDs. These ATDs are responsible for managing specific programmatic advertising campaigns. When they take charge of such campaigns, they leverage Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) to purchase ad inventory. These DSPs allow ATDs to bid on ad impressions in real-time auctions held in the Ad Exchanges.

These Ad Exchanges are marketplaces where ad impressions (opportunities to display an ad) are bought and sold in real-time auctions. They act as a connecting bridge between the Demand Side Platform (at the advertiser’s end) and the Supply Side Platform (at the publisher’s end).

Now what are these Supply Side Platforms (SSPs)? SSPs are platforms used by publishers to manage and sell their ad inventory across multiple channels. They coordinate with DSPs to perform the following tasks:

Once the ad space is sold by the publishers via SSPs to the advertisers via DSPs, the rest of the process is handled by the Ad Servers. Ad servers are responsible for the actual delivery and display of ads at the