What is outstream video?
Outstream video is a market term for video ads that play outside of video content, for example in a player that opens between paragraphs of an article, inside a social feed, or as a full-screen interstitial. It is not a value in OpenRTB. Under Video.plcmt such ads are usually 4 (no content or standalone) or 3 (interstitial), depending on how much of the screen they take.
Also called: out-stream video, in-article video, in-feed video, in-read video.
How it works
The legacy Video.placement list split outstream into named variants: 2 in-banner, 3 in-article, 4 in-feed, and 5 interstitial, slider, or floating. The plcmt list replaced those names with two questions: is there video content, and how dominant is the ad. An in-article or in-feed player with no content is 4. A full-screen video ad with no content is 3. If the player shows content and the ads play around it, the placement is accompanying content (2), even when the industry still calls it outstream.
Outstream units often need a renderer, because the page has no video player of its own. The seller or its header bidding setup supplies one, and the bid still returns VAST in Bid.adm. Since the ad usually starts muted and only when scrolled into view, buyers tend to value it below instream and read Video.playbackmethod to see how playback starts.
Pitfalls: labeling an outstream player as instream (plcmt = 1); copying the legacy placement value 2 into plcmt, where 2 means accompanying content; and leaving out playbackmethod, which hides whether the ad autoplays with sound off.
Read more
Related terms
Every term is in the glossary.