Ad Breaks

The Android TV Receiver SDK features native support for Ad Breaks and companion ads within a given media stream.

See the Web Receiver Ad Breaks Overview for more information on how Ad Breaks work.

Handling load with ad breaks

On your Android TV app, the breaks are included in MediaLoadRequestData. Load requests can be processed normally and the AdBreakClipInfos and AdBreakInfos can be retrieved from the MediaInfo:

Kotlin

class MyMediaLoadCommandCallback : MediaLoadCommandCallback() {
  override fun onLoad( senderId: String?, loadRequestData: MediaLoadRequestData
   ): Task {
    return Tasks.call {
      // Resolve the entity into your data structure and load media.
      val mediaInfo = loadRequestData.mediaInfo
      ...
      myPrepareAdBreaks(mediaInfo.adBreakClips, mediaInfo.adBreaks)
      // Update media metadata and state (this clears all previous status
      // overrides).
      castReceiverContext.getMediaStatusModifier()
          .setDataFromLoad(mediaInfo) // Ad breaks are set on the modifier.
      castReceiverContext.getMediaManager().broadcastMediaStatus()
      // Return the resolved MediaLoadRequestData to indicate load success.
      return loadRequestData
    }
  }
}

Java

public class MyMediaLoadCommandCallback extends MediaLoadCommandCallback {
  @Override
  public Task onLoad(String senderId, MediaLoadRequestData loadRequestData) {
    return Tasks.call(() -> {
        // Resolve the entity into your data structure and load media.
        MediaInfo mediaInfo = loadRequestData.getMediaInfo();
        ...
        myPrepareAdBreaks(mediaInfo.getAdBreakClips(), mediaInfo.getAdBreaks());
        // Update media metadata and state (this clears all previous status
        // overrides).
        castReceiverContext.getMediaStatusModifier()
            .setDataFromLoad(mediaInfo); // Ad breaks are set on the modifier.
        castReceiverContext.getMediaManager().broadcastMediaStatus();
        // Return the resolved MediaLoadRequestData to indicate load success.
        return loadRequestData;
    });
    }
}

Updating ad breaks

When ads start playing, update the AdBreakStatus on the MediaStatusModifier to broadcast that your app has started playing ads:

Kotlin

val breakStatus = AdBreakStatus.Builder()
        .setBreakId("b1")
        .setBreakClipId("bc1")
        .setCurrentBreakClipTimeInMs(breakClipProgress)
        .setCurrentBreakTimeInMs(breakProgress)
        .setWhenSkippableInMs(5000) // Set this field so that the ad break clip is skippable
        .build()

castReceiverContext.getMediaStatusModifier()
        .setAdBreakStatus(breakStatus)

Java

AdBreakStatus breakStatus =
    new AdBreakStatus.Builder()
        .setBreakId("b1")
        .setBreakClipId("bc1")
        .setCurrentBreakClipTimeInMs(breakClipProgress)
        .setCurrentBreakTimeInMs(breakProgress)
        .setWhenSkippableInMs(5000)  // Set this field so that the ad break clip is skippable
        .build();

castReceiverContext.getMediaStatusModifier()
    .setAdBreakStatus(breakStatus);

You can also dynamically modify the ad breaks after an item is loaded:

Kotlin

var breakClip1: AdBreakClipInfo = ...
var breakClip2: AdBreakClipInfo = ...
var breakClip3: AdBreakClipInfo = ...

var break1: AdBreakInfo = ...
var break2: AdBreakInfo = ...

mediaManager.getMediaStatusModifier().getMediaInfoModifier()
    .setAdBreakClips({breakClip1, breakClip2, breakClip3})
    .setAdBreaks({break1, break2})

Java

AdBreakClipInfo breakClip1 = ...
AdBreakClipInfo breakClip2 = ...
AdBreakClipInfo breakClip3 = ...

AdBreakInfo break1 = ...
AdBreakInfo break2 = ...

mediaManager.getMediaStatusModifier().getMediaInfoModifier()
    .setAdBreakClips({breakClip1, breakClip2, breakClip3})
    .setAdBreaks({break1, break2});

Enable and handle ad skipping

When an ad break is playing, the senders will show a button to skip the current ad break clip if it is skippable. To enable the ability for a user to skip an ad break clip, use the MediaStatusModifier to add the COMMAND_SKIP_AD media command:

Kotlin

mMediaManager.getMediaStatusModifier().setMediaCommandSupported(MediaStatus.COMMAND_SKIP_AD, true)

Java

mMediaManager.getMediaStatusModifier().setMediaCommandSupported(MediaStatus.COMMAND_SKIP_AD, true);

To handle the SKIP_AD command, implement the onSkipAd callback in your MediaCommandCallbacks:

Kotlin

class MyMediaCommandCallback : MediaCommandCallback() {
    override fun onSkipAd(requestData: RequestData?): Task<Void?> {
        // Skip your ad
        ...
        return Tasks.forResult<Any?>(null)
    }
}

val mediaManager = CastReceiverContext.getInstance().mediaManager
mediaManager.setMediaCommandCallback(MyMediaCommandCallback())

Java

public class MyMediaCommandCallback extends MediaCommandCallback {
  @Override
  public Task onSkipAd(RequestData requestData) {
    // Skip your ad
    ...
    return Tasks.forResult(null);
  }
}

MediaManager mediaManager =
    CastReceiverContext.getInstance().getMediaManager();
mediaManager.setMediaCommandCallback(new MyMediaCommandCallback());

Client-side stitching

Client-side stitching is where ads are not embedded in the stream. For Cast Connect, in addition to updating the AdBreakStatus on the MediaStatusModifier you mustset the playback speed to 0 on the PlaybackStateCompat so the senders know to freeze the content timeline progress.

Kotlin

// Playback speed should be 0 if content is not playing.
if (adIsPlaying) {
    playbackSpeed = 0.0f
}
val stateBuilder = PlaybackStateCompat.Builder()
    .setActions(AVAILABLE_MEDIA_ACTIONS)
stateBuilder.setState(playbackStateCompat, position, playbackSpeed)
mediaSession.setPlaybackState(stateBuilder.build())

Java

// Playback speed should be 0 if content is not playing.
if (adIsPlaying) {
    playbackSpeed = 0.0f;
}
PlaybackStateCompat.Builder stateBuilder = new PlaybackStateCompat.Builder()
    .setActions(AVAILABLE_MEDIA_ACTIONS);
stateBuilder.setState(playbackStateCompat, position, playbackSpeed);
mediaSession.setPlaybackState(stateBuilder.build());

Once the ad finishes, you should resume the previous playback speed.

Server-side stitching

For server-side stitching, the ads are embedded so the server is expected to provide a single stream that contains both the content and ads. In this case, playback can continue progressing normally as the timeline contains the duration of the ad in addition to the content.

Queueing

Media Session Validator