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1.8 | last updated April 5, 2022
Annually
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This document is provided for informational purposes. The information is provided “as is” and without warranties of any kind. Due to continuing product development, the information is subject to change without notice. Hulu, LLC shall not be responsible or liable for any inaccuracies, errors, or outdated information.
This document is intended for advertisers. It provides a summary of the video-streaming measurement processes employed by Hulu, LLC (Hulu). It includes a general description of Hulu’s measurement methodology, filtration processes and reporting procedures. Issuance of this document is in accordance with Hulu’s accreditation conferred by the Media Rating Council (MRC).
Hulu provides an Ad-supported streaming digital video service that offers a selection of TV shows, clips and movies via its video players at hulu.com, embedded Hulu video players hosted at other internet sites, mobile devices via the Hulu mobile application and over-the-top (OTT) internet-connected devices via device-specific Hulu applications. Users of Hulu’s digital video service may elect to view content on hulu.com and through external sites such as yahoo.com. To view Hulu content on web, or any Mobile or OTT internet-connected device, Hulu users must subscribe to the Hulu service. Video Ads are served within the Hulu player at pre- and mid-roll positions. Hulu partners with Content Providers (CPs) and distributors to provide digital video content to users. Hulu also produces certain original video content available through its streaming video service. Regardless of the origin of the content, Hulu maintains control of its streaming digital video players and content pipelines, and encodes all video content and advertisements prior to distribution within Hulu’s proprietary video players on Web and within Hulu applications. Access to Hulu content is limited to users within the United States, including US territories and military bases overseas, based on IP-address geolocation as determined by a third-party vendor; other regions are blocked. In most situations, Hulu’s first-party Ad server performs Ad decisioning. However, Hulu also supports third-party Ad serving in certain situations involving pre-established relationships with specified content providers. Please note that Hulu does not currently support Companion Ads.
The following Hulu metrics are included in MRC-accreditation scope, on the Web, OTT, and Mobile In-App platforms:
The following Hulu reports are included in MRC-accreditation scope:
The following items are excluded from MRC-accreditation scope:
Clients send Impressions and Completions to geographically-dispersed CDNs provided by Akamai. Akamai’s CDNs then forward these beacons to Hulu’s measurement servers.
Client initiate Impressions and Completions by firing a beacon via HTTP GET request. The measurement server returns a 200 to indicate successful reception of the beacon, and writes a line in its log file to record the Impression or Completion. The above is true of Impressions and Completions for all video, rich-media, and display Ads.
Detection of TV-off state, and accordingly pausing playback, is entirely dependent on the capabilities of hardware. Where detection is possible, Hulu apps pause playback. However, there is a population of devices that do not communicate the change of hardware state to higher levels in the tech stack. In these cases, Hulu apps are unable pause playback, although Continuous Play thresholds apply as normal. Hulu has conducted research to gain a general understanding of the aforementioned hardware capabilities and limitations. A study was performed on a broad sample of devices running Hulu’s OTT app. This sample included devices from manufacturers Amazon, Apple, Google, LG, Microsoft, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, Tivo, and Vizio. These devices running Hulu were paired with a variety of TVs from manufacturers that included LG, Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, and Vizio. The study was also ran with and without an AV receiver between the Hulu device and the TV.
A summary of study results is as follows:
In conclusion, there are many permutations of hardware, settings, and use cases to consider. Improving detection of TV-off is a complex industry issue that will require consistent commitment from TV manufacturers.
Based on User Agent, Hulu performs the IAB dual-pass method to remove all traffic that doesn’t appear on the international lists of spiders and bots, and valid browsers.
Hulu reports a variety of metrics to clients on a per-Campaign basis.
The reports in accreditation scope – Post-Buy and Device – are presented to clients at multiple points in the Campaign, depending on Campaign length and client preference. The Post-Buy is always presented after a Campaign ends.
Estimation is not used. Report metrics are composed solely from actual data collected in the measurement process.
While report data accumulates on a day-by-day basis, it is considered final as, once processed, a day’s data is official and generally unchanging. Data revisions are possible but rare.
These are Impressions and Completions, and their derivatives – Completion Rate and Delivered Percent.
Impressions and Completions are segregated in three ways:
Open columns with no metrics or data can also be presented. They are meant to reserve space conveniently for manual data entry. These include Estimated Spend values, Third Party and Discrepancy.
Reports can be:
Campaigns parameters are entered by Hulu’s Campaign Coordinators. Before being set live, every Campaign is subject to full review by a Campaign Manager.
After going live, Campaigns undergo pacing monitoring by Campaign Managers to ensure they’re delivering as expected. Optimizations and debugging are performed if necessary.
Revised metrics, including Impressions and Completions, will be communicated when excluded or invalid activity is detected for a Campaign after initial reporting and within three days after the end of the Campaign. The methods of communication include e-mail statement and / or updated reporting.
Campaigns billed against Hulu metrics are never billed for IVT traffic. In other words, Ad Campaign targets are always met after discounting any traffic identified as IVT. However, as mentioned above, clients are always notified of gross vs. net numbers. After reviewing these, clients may contact their Hulu Campaign Manager to discuss any general questions around IVT volume and classification.
Source data for Hulu’s reports is retained indefinitely without expiry. Records of data reissuance are also retained indefinitely.
At the time of this writing, Hulu maintains an important relationship with Akamai.
Akamai provides CDN services, playing a pivotal role in beacon gathering, and consequently has a material impact on Hulu ad delivery. Other business relationships exist but are not listed due to having no influence on Hulu’s ad delivery mechanisms. Per MRC regulations, Hulu has worked with Akamai to complete a qualification process whereby Hulu ascertains Akamai’s stance and progress against anti-IVT measures. While Akamai relies on its clients to make their own IVT policy decisions, Akamai offers a suite of tools to counteract IVT. This suite includes Bot Manager, which allows clients to configure appropriate responses to requests from bots, and use white and black lists. Another tool offered is Kona Site Defender, which provides rate control and analytics, as well as IVT-behavior detection. Akamai has also granted Hulu access to its SOC 2 security-based report2
© 2022 Disney Advertising All rights reserved
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