Release 8.59 14/09/2026

We’re pleased to release the 8.59 version of the Blue Billywig Online Video Platform.

  • Analytics lets you filter on “No value” for a facet.
  • Ad statistics reports now include VAST service views.
  • Playout and source details now make it into analytics on every view, not most of them.
  • You only see menus and actions for the modules you actually have and you can request a module straight from the details sidebar.
  • Several interface touch-ups in the Interactive Video Studio: long dropdowns scroll, pagination looks the way it should, and the Insert Macro text is readable again.
  • The player works on pages with a strict Trusted Types policy.
  • DASH streams now label their audio languages properly, so players can offer the right choice.
  • The media library gets the full clip details back from search, so nothing shows up half-loaded.
  • Multiple minor tweaks to the player skin.
  • Implemented multiple security enhancements.
  • A batch of feed-import fixes: videos no longer all come in at 1280×720, thumbnails resolve properly, the transcoding profile is applied, one bad file no longer strands the rest of the batch, and failed imports are retried instead of silently skipped.
  • Resolved several player stability issues, including a crash that could take down the surrounding page.
  • Fixed several errors in the OVP dashboard, and dropdowns no longer land on an option you can’t pick.
  • The audio language selector no longer lists subtitle and sign-language options.
  • Fixed an issue where the audio description track was picked automatically on HLS videos, ignoring the playout’s default audio track.
  • Sign-language tracks are recognised correctly during processing.
  • Fixed an issue where the ad overlay could stay on screen after a preroll, showing a black screen in fullscreen while audio kept playing.
  • Main content no longer starts before the preroll on ad-scheduling playouts.
  • Fixed ad macros being sent unreplaced in ad requests.
  • Ad-schedule reports no longer show a click-through rate of 0.
  • Shorts respects the configured ad frequency and position in certain edge cases, plus several ad-lifecycle fixes.
  • Vertical 9:16 clips no longer play stretched in Channels.
  • Fixed 360 video on desktop Chrome, where the camera started facing the ground and couldn’t be dragged.
  • Interactivity messages fired before playback are no longer lost on autoplay playouts.
  • The Publish button shows the right state after publishing a draft or saving a published project as a draft.
  • Fixed an issue where an uploaded thumbnail could silently fail to save.
  • Replacing a file with one of the same name no longer deletes it.
  • Live recordings keep their link to the source file.
  • An expired security token now reports itself properly, so the interface can recover instead of showing a generic error when you save.
  • Search results no longer return insecure http:// asset URLs.

SDK

  • Starting a Chromecast session from your own cast button now transfers playback instead of leaving the controls stuck on iOS.
  • The skip button appears on skippable ad breaks in ad-scheduling playouts, and now follows the player language instead of always showing English iOS.
  • Continue Watching is now available on iOS, Android, React Native and the web, and Channels picks it up automatically.
  • There’s a .NET SAPI SDK now, and the PHP, Node and Python SDKs gained filterset search plus public poster-path helpers.
  • React Native now passes companion ad events through to your app.