Discarding midroll ad breaks without triggering ad calls

[Darius]

Hello,

We have a use case where we want to be able to discard midroll ad breaks with VMAP or playlist responses without invoking ad requests of the discarded pod.  Let say, if a user watches content partially after getting midrolls served, then abandons the stream and later resumes it. We want to play a preroll break, and when the preroll finishes, skip to the last watched position in the content past the midroll by discarding it and continuing content playback. 

We tried using AdsManager.discardAdBreak() on AdEvent.STARTED or AdEvent.LOADED and while this discards the midroll ad break, we do see ad requests go out for removed ads, which is not ideal, because it causes code serves on the ad server.

We also tried calling AdsManager.discardAdBreak() before the midroll ad data is loaded, e.g. when a preroll break finishes but to no avail.  My understanding, based on the documentation, is that with VMAP or playlist, calling this method during the ad playback, will result in the currently playing ad break being discarded and content resumed immediately, and if the ad is not playing, it will discard the next scheduled ad break which I believe is what we'd need to do to achieve the above use case to avoid triggering the ad requests for the discarded midrolls. However, invoking this method when the ad data is not loaded does nothing. 

Are we missing something and is this use case currently possible with HTML5 IMA3 SDK?

Here's a quick test case using a slightly modified version of googleads-ima-html5/advanced sample. (This version just shows a button when AdManager is loaded with a click event listener that calls AdsManager.discardAdBreak() in the callback): 

Steps to reproduce

1. Click play and wait for a preroll break to finish
2. When the content resumes, click on the 'discard ad break' button

Expected behaviour 

The next scheduled midroll break is removed without any ad requests made 

Actual behaviour

When playback reaches the midroll point, the ad is requested and rendered.

[IMA SDK]

Hello Darius,

I'm Michael from IMA SDK Team, thank you for bringing to us your concern.

I was able to replicate the same behavior as stated in the steps to reproduce section of your post and with that, I have shared this to the rest of our team to get clarification on the behavior. We will provide more information on this thread once our team shared their findings.

Regards,

Michael Angelo IMA SDK Team

ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2WwtUm:ref

[Darius]

Thanks, Michael. Just checking if your team had a chance to take a closer look at this. Any further feedback you can provide would be much appreciated.

[IMA SDK]

Hello Darius,

 

Thank you for getting back to us.

 

There has been a good progress on the investigation. Our internal teams have also replicated the behavior and identified possible relation to earlier version of the SDK. We are working now on the resolution for this issue. Rest assured that once we have information on the aforementioned fix, we will update you on this thread as soon as possible.

Regards,

[Darius]

Thanks for the update, Michael. Please keep us posted as soon as you have further details from your team.

[Darius]

Just checking if there's any further movement on the issue. Thanks

[IMA SDK]

Hello Darius,

 

Thank you for coming back to us.

 

The issue appears to be already fixed. Let us know if you still encounter the same.

Regards,

[Andy Larochelle]

Hi,

We're having a similar/exact same issue.
When the ads manager loads, we're calling discardAdBreak() as soon as it loads, and it still makes the ad call for the first ad break.
We're using version 3.575.0 of the IMA HTML5 SDK. Seems like it's impossible to discard an ad break without the SDK triggering the ad call. 

Is this really fixed? In which version was this fixed? I can't seem to find any release notes regarding this.

Thanks,

[IMA SDK]

Hello Andy,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

The issue on discardAdBreak() was fixed in the version 3.508.0 of the SDK. This can be seen in our release notes (https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/history).

For us to investigate further on your issue, kindly provide to us the below information:

• Sample project where the issue is reproducible
• Steps to reproduce the behavior
• Screen recording showing the reported behavior
• VAST Ad Tag used in request call

If the file(s) you are looking to share are less than 25mb in total you can attach them to this case on your next reply. If you are having trouble attaching your file to this case or if your file(s) are larger than 25mb, you can share your files with me by performing the following steps.

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This message is in relation to case "ref:_00D1U1174p._5004Q2WwtUm:ref"

Thanks,
 

IMA SDK Team

[Andy Larochelle]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick answer and support! I actually found out that the IMA SDK offers `AdsRenderingSettings.playAdsAfterTime` which essentially resolves this issue for me.

Thanks again,

[IMA SDK]

Hi Andy,

Glad to hear that your issue is resolved. Don't hesitate to reach out for any IMA SDK concerns.