Outstream passbacks enable you to maximize revenue by setting up a waterfall across multiple ad formats. This feature ensures that when one ad unit fails to fill, the player automatically attempts to serve ads from alternative formats.
1.0 | How Outstream Passbacks Work
When you configure an outstream passback for a playout with a preroll ad unit, the following sequence occurs:
- First load: The player requests a preroll ad; if one is found, content will play automatically.
- Outstream passback: If the preroll fails to fill, the player pauses content playback and passes back to the assigned outstream ad unit.
- Display passback: If the outstream ad unit also fails to fill, the player can display a fallback display ad unit (if configured) for the duration of the passback interval.
- Content resumption: After the outstream ad finishes playing or the passback interval expires, the player requests another preroll ad. If a preroll is found, content playback resumes from the last position. If not, the player performs another outstream passback.
2.0 | How to Configure
Outstream passback is configured at the playout level, in the Advertising tab.
- Open the playout you want to configure.
- Go to the Advertising tab and locate the Outstream passback section.
- Use the Ad unit field to assign an outstream ad unit.
- Set the Passback interval (in seconds). This determines how long the player waits after the passback finishes before requesting another preroll ad. The minimum value is 5 seconds.
- Optionally, configure a display passback on the assigned ad unit. Open the ad unit, go to General Settings → Display Passback Settings, and select a passback type:
- HTML: paste custom HTML; this is rendered into a sandboxed iframe.
- GPT: enter an ad unit path and slot sizing to serve a Google Publisher Tag display ad.
- Prebid: select a Prebid auction to render a display bid directly, without involving an ad server.
Note:
When outstream passback is enabled, certain player configuration options are overridden by the player regardless of their configured values.
3.0 | Behavioral Overrides
When an outstream passback is assigned to a playout, the player enforces the following behaviors regardless of what is configured:
- ❌ Auto play only when pre-roll ad is available
The player will always prevent auto-play of instream content when no preroll ad is found. This ensures content only plays when an ad is available. - ❌ Start collapsed
The player will always initialize in a collapsed state. The player only expands when an ad (preroll, outstream, or display) is ready to serve.