iOS 11.1 mid-roll ads do not play

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi IMA Team,

I am able to reproduce an issue that was reported to us about playing mid-roll ads on iOS 11.1 Safari (iPhone) through the HTML5 IMA SDK.

To reproduce:

Use this VMAP tag: https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/124319096/external/ad_rule_samples&ciu_szs=300x250&ad_rule=1&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vmap&unviewed_position_start=1&cust_params=deployment%3Ddevsite%26sample_ar%3Dpremidpost&cmsid=496&vid=short_onecue&correlator=

The HTML5 video player must be set with playsinline.

We do not use autoplay, playback is started with an explicit user interaction.

What I am seeing is that the pre-roll ad plays but the mid roll does not. In our log I see a: 

[Log] Trace – DOMError {name: "AbortError", message: "The operation was aborted."}

trace (rmp.js:14766)

(anonymous function) (rmp.js:14787)

promiseReactionJob

So I am guessing this has something to do with the HTML5 video tag not being able to play the ad because it has not been initialized (though as I said the pre-roll plays).

I am not seeing this issue on iOS 10 (iPad) or iOS 9 (iPhone) so it seems specific to iOS 11. Using setDisableCustomPlaybackForIOS10Plus(true) solves this issue but since we do not have many people using this option I would prefer another way.

Can you try to reproduce this issue and let me know if this comes from the IMA SDK or our application?

Thanks

Arnaud

[Joshua Lagonera (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

This kind of error doesn't seem to have been reported to us before. However, you mentioned you are not using auto-play. Are you also using skippable ads? 

Would you be able to provide to us a sample page where we can use to replicate this issue on our end?

Regards,

Joshua Lagonera

IMA SDK Team

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi Joshua,

I am actually able to reproduce our issue here: http://rmp-staging.com/ads/advanced/. This is your advanced sample from https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-html5. The only difference is I added playsinline attribute on the HTML5 video tag.
In order to reproduce got to http://rmp-staging.com/ads/advanced/ with an iPhone iOS 11.1.* Safari. Click on sample. This will load a VMAP adTag https://www.radiantmediaplayer.com/vast/tags/vmap.xml (this is ours but you can try with your sample DFP VMAP the issue is the same). Then initiate playback by clicking the play icon. You should see the pre-roll ad playing then content which is expected. Let content play for about 15 sec and then player pauses. The mid-roll ad is not displayed and the player remains paused. The logs show

Ad error: AdError 400: There was an error playing the video ad. Caused by: Error: AdError 1205: The browser prevented playback initiated without user interaction.

This is the issue.

Thanks
Arnaud

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[Joshua Lagonera (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

Thank you for providing a sample page where we can further look into the issue you reported. This is actually intended behavior for the IMA SDK and Mobile Safari 11 where videos on Safari 11 must be muted first before being allowed to auto-play due to changes to how their videos play.

We have a sample project where you can check how this behavior should be handled, which you can also view as a live page here. The way this is handled is that the SDK will attempt to auto-play the ad, and if it fails, it should fall back to the usual click-to-play behavior.

You can follow our official blog where we have an upcoming blog post that dives deeper into this behavior and provide additional details. 

Hope this clears up any confusion on your end.

Regards,

Joshua Lagonera

IMA SDK Team

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi Joshua,

I looked at the resources you provided but I am still seeing an issue which prevents mid-roll ad from rendering on iOS 11 with the HTML5 IMA  SDK. Note that this only affects mid roll ads (probably post-roll ads as well) when using the HTML5 video playsinline property on content and custom playback on iOS 11 - I am well able to play or muted autoplay pre-roll ads on iOS 11.
I have set muted to my example at http://rmp-staging.com/ads/advanced/ and the mid-roll ad would still not show. The ad loads but is immediately discarded due to following aderror, without any option to play the ad even when content is muted and this leaves me with a paused content player.

> Ad error: AdError 400: There was an error playing the video ad. Caused by: Error: AdError 1205: The browser prevented playback initiated without user interaction.

I understand what this error is telling but what I am trying to say is that I cannot manage to play a mid-roll ad on iOS 11 (when using playsinline on content and custom playback) and so far I have not found any way that the IMA SDK would let me. I have not found any example on your site/GitHub that would work in such instance. If you still think this is doable I would appreciate if you could share a sample code showing what steps are required for this to work.

Thanks
Arnaud

[Dan Ziv]

I am also able to reproduce this issue with IMA sample app:

https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-html5/blob/master/advanced/index.html

with ad tag

http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/124319096/external/ad_rule_samples&ciu_szs=300x250&ad_rule=1&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vmap1&unviewed_position_start=1&cust_params=sample_ar%3Dpremidpostpod&cmsid=496&vid=short_onecue&correlator=

on iOS 11.1 and iPhone8Plus

Notice that we are talking on click-to-play scenario, which means that pre-roll starts on explicit user interaction, but mid-roll failed to play and throwing the above message.

[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi All,

I'm able to reproduce this issue as well. I've shared the information with the appropriate team members for further investigation and we will be looking at possible solutions. I will let you know as soon as we have an update.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

[Arnaud Leyder]

Hi IMA team,

Have you been able to find a fix for this issue? We are still unable to play mid-roll ads on newer iOS versions through the HTML5 IMA SDK.

Thanks
Arnaud

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[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

Thank you for following up. Our team is still investigating the issue and we don't have any updates to report at this time. I will reach out as soon as I have more information.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

On Tuesday, January 2, 2018 at 8:38:22 AM UTC-5, Arnaud Leyder wrote:

Hi IMA team,

Have you been able to find a fix for this issue? We are still unable to play mid-roll ads on newer iOS versions through the HTML5 IMA SDK.

Thanks
Arnaud

On 04/12/2017 15:54, 'Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)' via Interactive Media Ads SDK wrote:

Hi All,

I'm able to reproduce this issue as well. I've shared the information with the appropriate team members for further investigation and we will be looking at possible solutions. I will let you know as soon as we have an update.

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team

On Sunday, December 3, 2017 at 9:27:11 AM UTC-5, Dan Ziv wrote:

I am also able to reproduce this issue with IMA sample app:

https://github.com/googleads/googleads-ima-html5/blob/master/advanced/index.html

with ad tag

http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/124319096/external/ad_rule_samples&ciu_szs=300x250&ad_rule=1&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=xml_vmap1&unviewed_position_start=1&cust_params=sample_ar%3Dpremidpostpod&cmsid=496&vid=short_onecue&correlator=

on iOS 11.1 and iPhone8Plus

Notice that we are talking on click-to-play scenario, which means that pre-roll starts on explicit user interaction, but mid-roll failed to play and throwing the above message.

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[Chris Feldman (IMA SDK Team)]

Hi Arnaud,

The issue with mid-rolls on iOS should be resolved in the latest version of the SDK. 

Regards,

Chris Feldman

IMA SDK Team