playbackmethod 4 means Initiates on Mouse-Over or cursor over with Sound On

When to send it

Send 4 when the ad starts as the mouse pointer or an on-screen cursor moves over the player, with sound on. AdCOM 1.0-202607 added cursor over to the label so it also fits TV interfaces where a remote moves focus onto a tile. In OpenRTB 2.0 to 2.4 it was simply Mouse-Over.

Buyers treat hover as weak intent, since the viewer may only have been passing by, and touch screens have no hover at all. It is confused with 3, where the viewer actually clicks, and with 5, where scrolling the player into view starts playback.

Example

{
  "imp": [
    {
      "video": {
        "playbackmethod": [
          4
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Fields that carry it

• imp.video.playbackmethod

Other values in playback methods

The playback methods list page explains the whole list and its common mistakes.