# Watching That — full content > The full public content of watchingthat.com in one file: what the Operations Control Platform is, who runs it, how it connects, every question the site answers, all 73 video advertising error codes with their causes and recommended actions, and every post on the blog. Companion to /llms.txt, which is the short index. Generated from the site's own content sources by `tools/gen-llms-full.mjs` on 2026-09-08. Rerun that script after a content change rather than editing this file by hand. --- ## What Watching That is The Operations Control Platform for ad operations teams at broadcasters, streamers, and digital publishers. Watching That is a supervisory layer that sits across every ad server, SSP, SSAI template, and distribution partner an ad-ops team operates against — and catches the configuration drift, the under-delivery, the partner-feed breach, and the regulator-class compliance miss before the loss is the loss. The platform connects via read-only API to FreeWheel and Google Ad Manager. It runs validation monitors and anomaly detection against the live ad-server configuration every ten minutes or so. Every catch deep-links back to the campaign, placement, or rule in the source system. Founded 2016, headquartered in the UK (Watching That Limited, registered office: 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX). --- ## The platform — four modules in one session graph **Report** — daily, FAST, and monthly recap reports of inventory performance, sell-through, fill rates, partner-deal output, and campaign delivery. Business-grade reporting that arrives as a finished artifact, not a dashboard the team has to build. **Analysis** — VAST error analysis, supply-chain dig-down across the full inventory graph, demand-migration validation. The forensic surface for "why did this campaign under-deliver" or "where did this fill rate drop come from". **Inspect** — log-level event access. Forensic single-impression investigation. The surface for "show me the ad call that failed at 14:23 last Thursday". **Monitoring** — the autonomous surface, made of two monitor classes: *Anomaly Monitors* — channel-fluctuation alerting, drift detection in minutes. Fires when fill rate, eCPM, or session-level KPIs deviate from baseline, with the revenue impact named in the alert. *Validation Monitors* — QA rules that run against the live ad-server config every ten minutes or so. Catches daypart breaches (alcohol creative running in a morning daypart), frequency-cap drift (3% over-cap on a $50M campaign = $1.5M of waste), SSAI template misconfiguration, partner-feed bid floor drift, political-creative compliance freezes. Three monitors free for life on FreeWheel or GAM. --- ## The four solutions Watching That does for ad-ops teams **Confidence in every campaign** (/solutions/confidence/) — Automated QA across configs, compliance, and partners. The surface that catches the breach before the breach is the breach. Use case: avoiding the regulator-first call you don't want to get, fines that start at six figures. **Visibility across your stack** (/solutions/visibility/) — One view of every ad server, SSP, and distribution partner. Supply-chain dig-down across the full inventory graph. Use case: knowing where every impression is being filled and at what eCPM, end-to-end. **Early warning on revenue risk** (/solutions/early-warning/) — Anomaly detection in minutes with the revenue impact named. Use case: catching the 24-million-impression over-delivery on a major title mid-flight, before it walks out the door as a make-good. **Answers when something breaks** (/solutions/answers/) — Root cause and full context across every team and system. Analysis + Inspect modules for forensic ad-error investigation. Use case: closing the loop on an SSP-side dispute in hours, not weeks. --- ## Who it's for **Broadcasters & Pay TV** (/for/broadcasters/) — Linear, VOD, addressable, FAST channels. Operators running FreeWheel against demand from broadcast and pay-TV inventory. A+E Global Media, Sky, DISH, Foxtel are named customers in this segment. **Streaming & FAST** (/for/streaming-fast/) — FAST channel operators and OTT streamers. The unique catch-class problems of free-ad-supported television: SSAI template drift, content-server fill failures, supply-side schema mismatches across the linear-channel-as-stream rendering layer. **Digital Publishers** (/for/publishers/) — IP-driven inventory at scale, programmatic + direct stacks. Operators running Google Ad Manager with mixed SSP demand. New York Post, Fandom are named customers in this segment. --- ## Named customers — published case studies **A+E Global Media** (/customers/a-e-global-media/) — Operates FreeWheel against linear, VOD, and FAST channel inventory. Uses Analysis (VAST error analysis, supply-chain dig-down, demand-migration validation), Report (Daily Report, FAST Report, Monthly Recap), Anomaly Monitors (channel-fluctuation alerting), and Inspect (log-level event access). Sourced from the August 2023 case study at watchingthat.com/reduce-ad-errors-with-watching-that-and-ae-networks/ and the August 2024 blog post at watchingthat.com/blog/how-ae-networks-uses-watching-that-for-their-fast-channels/, with a verbatim quote from R. Lee Barstow (VP Revenue Operations, A+E). **New York Post** (/customers/ny-post/) — Operates Google Ad Manager against eight SSPs plus partner deals. Uses Inspect (diagnostics, troubleshooting at log level), Analysis (find / fix / solve across the full demand graph), Report (rich business-grade reporting), and Anomaly Monitors (issue detection). Sourced from a verbatim quote from Eduardo Gomez (NY Post) on watchingthat.com/resources/case-studies/. Neither A+E nor NY Post are Validation Monitors customers — they are Full Platform / Analysis / Report / Inspect / Anomaly Monitors customers. --- ## AI & MCP — Watching That's Model Context Protocol server Watching That exposes platform data to AI assistants via the Model Context Protocol. The server lives at the URL provided in customer onboarding; the seven tools available are: 1. **search** — query metrics + dimensions across accessible data sources 2. **list_available_metrics** — enumerate metrics per organisation 3. **list_available_dimensions** — enumerate dimensions per organisation 4. **allowed_long_term_dim_combinations** — identify permissible dimension combinations for rollup queries 5. **list_accessible_dss** — list data sources (DSS = data sources, not data spaces) the user has access to 6. **current_user** — establish authenticated user context 7. **save_search** — persist a query for reuse The mandatory workflow sequence is: current_user → list_accessible_dss → list_available_metrics / list_available_dimensions / allowed_long_term_dim_combinations → search. Only after the metric / dimension landscape is mapped against the user's accessible data sources should an analytical query (search) be issued. --- ## How Validation Monitors connects (the read-only product surface) Validation Monitors connects to FreeWheel or GAM via a read-only API connection. SpringServe is not supported for VM (Anomaly Monitors, the sister product, covers a wider set of ad-ops systems including SpringServe). The cadence: every ten minutes or so, each monitor's QA rule runs against the live ad-server config — placements, line items, creative assignments, daypart rules, frequency caps, freeze windows, SSAI templates, partner-feed bid floors. When a monitor fires, the alert is delivered by email or Slack (named with campaign + partner) and the deep-link in the alert opens directly to the line item or placement that needs fixing in FreeWheel Admin or GAM Network. --- ## Pricing / commercial shape **Three Validation Monitors free for life** on a single FreeWheel or GAM connection. No procurement, no contract. Sign-up at /demo/ or /contact/. Beyond three monitors: the library grows organically as the ad-ops team encodes the QA rules they used to check by hand. A typical six-month deployment looks like: three free monitors at month one (alcohol daypart, household frequency cap, one creative-compliance rule), past twenty by month three, library crossing eighty by month six. The growth is the team's, not the platform's. Full Platform pricing for Report / Analysis / Inspect / Anomaly Monitors: not published. Discovery call at /demo/ scopes against the customer's stack. --- ## Integrations — the systems Watching That reads from Ad servers, SSPs, partner endpoints, distribution feeds, identity, analytics — the stack you have is the stack we supervise. Most customers connect their first system quickly with engineering support, and the rest over the following weeks. ### Named connectors in production. We can integrate with anything that emits ad-ops data — the five tiers below cover the territory. These are the systems we have shipped, named, production-tested connectors for. - **Ad servers**: FreeWheel, Google Ad Manager, SpringServe. - **SSPs & Demand Partners**: Magnite, Index Exchange, PubMatic, GAM AdX, OpenX. - **Video Player Plugins**: Akamai AMP, Bitmovin, Brightcove, JW Player, VideoJS. - **AI & SSO**: Claude, ChatGPT, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID. Native connectors above + anything else via standard data feed or Collector API. ### What we read, and what we do with it. **Ad servers** — We read delivery, policy, and config history from your ad server — and reconcile it against what downstream systems actually saw. Systems: FreeWheel, Google Ad Manager, Invidi, Xandr, Equativ. **SSPs** — We read bids, fills, floors, and request/response pairs from your SSPs — and match them against your ad server’s view of the same inventory. Systems: Magnite, Index Exchange, PubMatic, SpringServe, OpenX, Sovrn. **FAST & partner endpoints** — We read delivery logs from your FAST platforms and partner distribution. When a break runs on a partner but your log says it didn’t, we surface the gap. Systems: Pluto, Samsung TV Plus, Roku, LG Channels, Philo, Tubi. **Identity & audience** — We read cohort-level signals and match them against delivered impressions — so audience failures surface as delivery anomalies, not as quarterly attribution puzzles. Systems: LiveRamp, The Trade Desk, ID5, Experian, Permutive. **Analytics & warehouse** — We write a clean event stream out to your warehouse, so your analysts work on the same reconciled picture the operators do — not on a parallel extract. Systems: Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, S3. Connector-level detail — authentication methods, API surfaces, retention windows, data-handling — lives in the docs site. This page is a map of breadth, not a reference. --- ## Questions the site answers 23 question-and-answer pairs, as published on the pages that carry them. ### The four most-asked. — https://www.watchingthat.com/validation-monitors/ **What is a Validation Monitor?** A Validation Monitor is a rule that runs every ~10 minutes against your live ad-server setup and fires the moment a misconfiguration trips the rule. It reads via a read-only API connection to FreeWheel or GAM. Each fire deep-links straight to the specific line item, creative, or package that needs fixing. **What does a Validation Monitor catch?** Four classes of GAM failure: sponsorship line item over-delivery (where GAM has no native goal-setting); compliance key-value gaps on COPPA, GDPR consent, or brand-safety exclusion; multi-domain KV drift across acquired properties; and creative end-date vs line-item end-date misalignment that causes silent under-delivery or default-creative serves. **How is this different from Datadog or Splunk infrastructure monitoring?** Infrastructure monitoring watches your servers — CPU, latency, error rates. Validation Monitors watch whether your ad-server setup is doing what you sold. Different layer of the stack: Datadog tells you the server is up; VM tells you the line item, the targeting, and the creative are set up to deliver against the order you sold. ### Validation Monitors, answered. — https://www.watchingthat.com/solutions/confidence/ **What does Watching That validate?** Configs (dayparts, frequency caps, audience segments, partner rules), compliance constraints (alcohol, gambling, pharma, political, brand-safety), and every partner handoff (SSPs, ad servers, SSAI, distribution) — around 100 checks in the Validation Monitor library, against the rules you set. **Does it replace my ad server or SSP?** No. It's a read-only QA layer that validates what's configured across your systems; it sits across them, it doesn't touch or replace them. **How is this different from QA'ing in the ad server UI before launch?** Manual UI checks are point-in-time, one system at a time, and miss the seams between systems. Validation Monitors check every campaign against every rule across the whole stack, automatically, before ship and at every handoff. **Is it real-time?** No. The Monitors run on an automated, continuous cadence — and they validate before a campaign ships, which is the point: catch it pre-launch, not after. **What happens when something's off-spec?** You're flagged before it goes live — a daypart that won't fire, a restricted creative in the wrong slot, a partner handoff dropping impressions — while you can still fix it, so the advertiser, the regulator or the CRO isn't the first to know. ### Report harvesting, answered. — https://www.watchingthat.com/solutions/visibility/ **How is this different from exporting reports into a spreadsheet?** Manual exports are point-in-time, break when a partner changes format, and never connect across sources. Harvesting is continuous, any-feed, and reconciled into one view. **Does it replace my SSP, DSP or data warehouse?** No. It unifies what they report; it sits across them, not instead of them. **What can it pull in?** Turn-key connectors for popular SSPs/DSPs/GAM/SpringServe, an any-feed framework for virtually any report (even email attachments), and the reports your endpoint partners send you. **Can it bring in upstream data like viewership or measurement?** Yes — this is one of the most-wanted joins. Upstream viewership and measurement (Conviva-class) that today sit in a separate tool get harvested into the same reconciled picture as your ad-revenue data, and reconciled against it — not just stored alongside. **Is it real-time?** No. Harvesting runs on an automated, continuous cadence — not real-time alerting. ### Early warning, answered. — https://www.watchingthat.com/solutions/early-warning/ **What does Watching That detect?** Live revenue anomalies on your monetisation surfaces: fill collapses, pacing deviations, partner-side error spikes, unused-inventory drift, measurement bugs. Each Anomaly Monitor watches one metric on one surface against its own learned baseline, continuously — and prices the deviation in dollars the moment it fires. **Is it real-time?** No. It runs on a continuous monitor cadence, not real-time streaming. The promise is "minutes, not the morning report": the clock starts at the deviation rather than at the next pacing report, so you catch a Tuesday drop on Tuesday — typically within minutes — while you can still act on it. **What do you mean by "named in dollars"?** Every alert carries the revenue at risk as a dollar figure, not a colour on a chart. The deviation is priced on the way out, so you triage by exposure — and the figure is reconciled end-of-day in Report. **Does it replace my ad server or SSP?** No. It's a read-only monitoring layer that watches across your ad servers, SSPs, SSAI endpoints and partner connections; it sits across them, it doesn't touch or replace them. **How is this different from my pacing dashboard or morning report?** A pacing dashboard tells you something moved, after the fact, with no dollar figure and no owner. Watching That detects the deviation as it happens on the monitor cadence, prices it in dollars, names the root and the owner, and routes it in about ninety seconds — before the hour compounds. ### Root cause across teams, answered. — https://www.watchingthat.com/solutions/answers/ **How is this different from running the FreeWheel report and the Datadog report and merging them by hand?** That manual merge IS the 40-minute call. Watching That joins the full path across systems into one session tree so the question is answered in one pass, with the failing node named and the dollar impact attached. **Does it replace FreeWheel, GAM or our SSPs?** No. It sits ACROSS them, reconciling and joining their data into one trace. Your ad servers and SSPs stay exactly where they are. **Is the root cause real-time?** No. Watching That runs on an automated, continuous monitoring cadence — fast enough to answer “why did it move Tuesday” by Tuesday, not a live streaming feed. **Can three teams genuinely reach the same verdict?** Yes — that's the point. Sessions are reproducible: Ad Ops, Tech Ops and Product & Integrations all open the same tree and the failing node is named, not inferred, so there's nothing left to argue about. **Can I query it from Claude or ChatGPT?** Yes. The session graph is queryable via MCP, so you can ask the cross-system question in natural language from the AI tools your team already uses. --- ## Video advertising error codes — the full glossary Every code Watching That documents at https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/, with its severity, meaning, cause and recommended action. 73 codes across 11 categories. Each code deep-links by its own anchor, e.g. https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-303 or https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_timeout. ### VAST XML Document Errors (100 – 102) - **100** — Fatal. VAST XML parsing error. Cause: This can be caused when the buyer’s response is either malformed or an otherwise invalid XML document, or a redirect VAST URL that fails to resolve successfully. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Verify that the VAST XML is correctly formatted and contains all of the required elements and attributes. Refer to the VAST specification from the IAB. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-100 - **101** — Fatal. VAST schema validation error. Cause: This can be caused when the buyer’s response is missing required elements or attributes of the XML or contained unrecognized elements, according to the IAB standard, such as: InLine and Wrapper both present; AdTagURI missing in Wrapper element; Duration missing; Missing Ad node or MediaFile node; Offset attribute on Progress event is missing or not a valid value. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer -Verify that the VAST XML is correctly formatted and contains all of the required elements and attributes. Refer to the VAST specification from the IAB. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-101 - **102** — Fatal. VAST version of response not supported. Cause: This can be caused when a video player does not support the VAST version specified in the bid request, i.e. the bidder did not respect the VAST version(s) listed in the bid request or the exchange is sending wrong VAST version(s) in the bid request. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that only supported VAST versions are sent in a response. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-102 ### VAST Creative File Errors (200 – 203) - **200** — Sometimes fatal. Video player expecting different ad type. Cause: This can be caused when a video player does not expect or support an ad type requested in a bid request. For example: Player wanted Skippable Linear, but got back Linear; Player wanted Linear, but got back Skippable Linear; For Skippable Linear, skipoffset doesn’t meet publisher expectations; Bidder did not respect the skip-ability/skipoffset in the bid request; Exchange is sending wrong skip-ability/skipoffset in the bid request. Recommended action: Publisher – Check for trafficking errors or alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that only specified ad types are sent in a response, and that skippable linear creatives respect the skip offset attribute. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-200 - **201** — Sometimes fatal. Video player expecting different linearity. Cause: This can be caused when the linearity in the buyer’s response does not match the video player’s request. For example: Bidder did not respect the linearity in the bid request. Exchange is sending wrong linearity in the bid request; Ensure linearity requested is being respected. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the correct linearity is specified in the ad request. Buyer – Ensure that the response only includes linearity specified in the request. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-201 - **202** — Sometimes fatal. Video player expecting different duration. Cause: This can be caused when the creative returned is a different duration than specified. For example, a creative of duration 30 seconds is returned, but the actual MediaFile duration is 60 seconds. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the creative duration is set properly in DFP. Buyer – Ensure that the response respects the max duration specified in the request. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-202 - **203** — Sometimes fatal. Video player expecting different size. Cause: This can be caused when a buyer’s returned MediaFiles are incompatible with the device from which the bid request is sent. For example: When high bitrate creatives are returned to mobile devices; No MediaFile is available with dimensions that are matching for the device (i.e. mobile devices that cannot play full HD). Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that your response includes MediaFiles that are compatible with different technologies and devices, including bitrates. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-203 ### VAST Ad Request Errors (300 – 303) - **300** — Fatal. General wrapper error. Cause: This can be caused when the wrapper limit is reached. Recommended action: This is a general wrapper error and is not actionable, however: Check that all VAST URIs are reachable and not timing out; Ensure wrapper limit is not reached. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-300 - **301 / 301:20301** — Fatal. VAST redirect timeout reached. Cause: This can be caused when a VAST redirect tag does not return a response within the timeout (5 seconds is the default) specified in a wrapper element, due to one of the following: Non-optimized page; Player timeout set too low; Invalid URI, unreachable or request timeout for a URI, or other exceptions related to requesting a VAST URI. High latency connection (for example, 3G) or simply a slow response from a buyer; HTTP serving to HTTPS. Recommended action: Publisher -Increase the timeout limit of your player. Buyer -Ensure that the VAST redirect URI is reachable and no protocol issues exist (for example, responses hosted on HTTP and served to an HTTPS site. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-301 - **302 / 302:20302** — Fatal. Wrapper limit reached. Cause: This can be caused when the wrapper limit defined by the video player is reached, due to either: Too many wrapper responses are received without an inline response; A circular loop of daisy chaining exists (one network bouncing to another and another); Too many empty VAST responses from video fallback. Recommended action: Publisher – Increase the wrapper limit of your player via the SDK. Buyer -Verify that any VAST redirects are not redirecting again to another network. When too many redirects are called from a video player before a valid MediaFile is returned, the player might abort the ad request. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-302 - **303 / 303:20303** — Fatal. Empty VAST response returned. Cause: This can be caused when no ads are returned in a VAST response after one or more wrappers. This also includes empty VAST responses from video fallback.When working with third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. Video fallback may be helpful to avoid losing impressions. Buyer – Ensure that bids are not being returned with an empty VAST response, and that empty responses are not being returned by the advertiser or agency hosting the creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-303 ### VAST Linear Tag Errors (400 – 410) - **400 / 400:20400** — Fatal. General linear error. Cause: This can be caused when a video player is unable to display the linear ad. It may occur when the MediaFile is not a valid video file of the specified format, or because the browser restricted autoplay with sound, or another unknown reason. Recommended action: Publisher – Check for player issues, enable your player to detect for restricted autoplay, or alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-400 - **401** — Fatal. MediaFile not found. Cause: This can be caused when a file cannot be found from a MediaFile URI. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that all MediaFiles in the response return a valid video asset. If not, alert the buyer. Buyer -Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-401 - **402 / 402:20402** — Non-fatal. Timeout of MediaFile URI. Cause: This can be caused by a problem fetching or playing the MediaFile, and could be any of the following: The loadVideoTimeout is set too low in the IMA SDK. (the default is 8 seconds); Low bandwidth or poor website implementation with competing requests that delay loading of the MediaFile; A video auto-plays in a mobile environment, whereas it should be click-to-play (there are some exceptions); Showing video ads in an auto-play environment (for example, a playlist), while the window is not in focus (either another tab is selected, or window is minimized) (Chrome only). Recommended action: Publisher – Increase the timeout limit of your player. Buyer – Ensure that any CDN-hosted creatives are returned within the specified media timeout. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-402 - **403** — Fatal. Could not find MediaFile that is supported by this video player, based on the attributes of the MediaFile element. Cause: This can be caused by a VAST response that declares unsupported MIME types for all available MediaFiles. For example: Bidder did not respect mime types in bid request; Exchange did not send correct mime types; May indicate that the wrong creative type attempted to play such as a Flash creative attempted to play on a mobile device or WebM on iOS. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the creative format or technology requested is supported by the video player’s device and platform. For example, VPAID creatives should not be requested from mobile apps. Buyer – Ensure that all returned creatives respect the video format in the bid request. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-403 - **405** — Fatal. Problem displaying MediaFile. Cause: This can be caused when a faulty creative is returned due to a mismatch between the MIME type and the video file type, a CORS configuration on the creative’s CDN, transcoding-related reason such as an unsupported codec, or unsupported delivery method. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that all creative MIME types and CDN configurations are accurate. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-405 - **406** — Non-fatal. Missing required mezzanine file. Cause: This can be caused a VAST response is returned without a required mezzanine file. Publishers with server-side ad implementations (SSAI) often require mezzanine files, which are raw high-quality video files for ad-stitching, or to generate video files of appropriate quality (VAST 4). Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that a mezzanine file is included in your response when required by the publisher. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-406 - **407** — Fatal. Mezzanine file downloaded for the first time. Cause: This can be caused when the mezzanine file is downloaded for the first time, so no ad is served. It can also occur when an ad insertion is missed because the creative is being transcoded. It continues to occur until the creative is available for insertion (VAST 4). Recommended action: No action required. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-407 - **408** — Fatal. Ad rejected in VAST response. Cause: This can be caused when the ad returned in the VAST response is rejected. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that only approved creatives are returned in your VAST response, or that any advertisers or agencies hosting the creatives are aware of rejections. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-408 - **409** — Fatal. Interactive unit in the InteractiveCreativeFile node was not executed. Cause: This can be caused when a creative defined in the InteractiveCreativeFile node does not execute. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that any interactive creatives returned in your response successfully play when requested. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-409 - **410** — Fatal. Verification unit in the Verification node was not executed. Cause: This can be caused when the code referenced in the AdVerification node does not execute (VAST 4). Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that the verification code referenced in the response is correctly implemented according to the verification vendor. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-410 ### VAST Non-Linear Tag Errors (500 – 503) - **500** — Fatal. General NonLinearAds error. Cause: This can be caused when a video player is unable to display a non-linear ad, for an unknown reason. Recommended action: Publisher – Check for video player issues or alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-500 - **501** — Fatal. Non-linear ad creative dimensions do not align with creative display area. Cause: This can be caused when a non-linear ad is unable to play because the creative dimensions did not align with creative display area (the creative dimension was too large). It may occur if you use CSS styles to set width and height of the video content element. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the set width and height match the display area. If you set the width and height of the video content element with CSS styles, set them with HTML attributes instead. Buyer -Alert the publisher. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-501 - **502** — Fatal. Unable to fetch NonLinearAds/NonLinear resource. Cause: This can be caused when the buyer’s response returns a non-linear ad that fails to return a valid creative. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer -Ensure that valid creatives are returned in the non-linear ad response. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-502 - **503 / 503:20503** — Fatal. Could not find NonLinearresource with supported type. Cause: This error can be caused when a creative size is larger than the player size, or not a proper media type. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that requested creative sizes and media types are acceptable for the video player. Buyer -Alert the publisher. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-503 ### VAST Companion Ad Errors (600 – 604) - **600** — Sometimes fatal. General CompanionAds error. Cause: This can be caused when a publisher is unable to display a companion ad, for an unknown reason. Recommended action: Publisher – Check for ad serving issues, or alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-600 - **601** — Sometimes fatal. Companion creative dimensions did not align with companion display area. Cause: This can be caused when the companion creative dimensions do not fit within Companion display area (i.e., no available space). Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that the requested companion ad size fits within the dimension of the ad unit from which the request is made. Buyer – Alert the publisher. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-601 - **602** — Sometimes fatal. Unable to display Required Companion. Cause: This can be caused the publisher is unable to render the companion ad creative returned in the VAST response. Recommended action: Publisher – Check for ad serving issues, or alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that the VAST response returns a valid creative. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-602 - **603** — Sometimes fatal. Unable to fetch CompanionAds/Companion resource. Cause: This can be caused when the buyer’s response returns a companion ad that fails to return a valid creative. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure that valid creatives are returned in the companion ad response. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-603 - **604** — Sometimes fatal. Could not find Companion resource with supported type. Cause: This can be caused when a publisher requests an unsupported creative type for the companion ad slot. Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that specified creative types are supported for the companion ad slot. Buyer – Alert the publisher. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-604 ### VPAID Errors (900 – 901) - **900 / 900:20900** — Fatal. Undefined VAST 2 error. Cause: This is the result of an unknown VAST 2 error, which likely stopped the ad request. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Work with the publisher to troubleshoot the exact issue. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-900 - **901 / 901:20901** — Fatal. General VPAID error. Cause: This can be caused by any VPAID error, which could be any of the following: SSP VPAID wrapper not buying; SSP VPAID wrapper timeout; VPAID creatives required insecure mode; An Ad Exchange “IMA Adapter” tag is used with the IMA SDK, and a VPAID ad is returned (the “Direct SDK” tag should be used). Recommended action: Publisher – Ensure that any VPAID creative requests are supported for devices and players. You can use video creative profiles to control which creatives are eligible to serve. Buyer – Ensure that any VAST responses that return HTML5 VPAID wrappers from IAS/DV/MOAT include an MP4 asset, and that the wrapper is not aborting playback. Also, ensure that you don’t bid on impressions without a determined advertiser or buyer, or attempt to initiate a client-side resale. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-901 ### Brightcove Player Ad Errors - **adtimeout** — Fatal. IMA3 has timed out. Cause: A timeout managed by the plugin has expired and regular video content has begun to play. Ad integrations have a fixed amount of time to inform the plugin of their intent during playback. If the ad integration is blocked by network conditions or an error, this event will fire and regular playback resumes rather than stalling the player indefinitely. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-adtimeout - **ima3-hardtimeout** — Fatal. IMA3 hard timeout reached. Cause: A timeout managed by the Brightcove Player has expired and the ad execution has been abandoned with regular video content started. Brightcove has a setting that gives the IMA plugin a fixed amount of time to complete its execution. If it fails to do so the Player will abandon the ad execution irrespective of how far it has reached in its cycle. Recommended action: If you see a high rate of this error type it’s advisable to adjust the levels accordingly in your Brightcove player settings. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-ima3-hardtimeout - **ima3error** — Fatal. IMA3 SDK failed to load. Cause: There was an error loading the IMA3 SDK from Google. If it occurs, no ads will be displayed and regular content will be started. The cause of this could be due to an active ad blocker intercepting the call to load the SDK. Or other network conditions might have caused the IMA3 SDK to not load properly. Recommended action: If you see a high rate of this error it’s advisable to contact your Brightcove Support rep to investigate further. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-ima3error ### JWPlayer Ad Errors - **900:60001** — Fatal. No Ad element in VAST document after following wrappers. Cause: When working with third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors. You can check to ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. Some ad providers use empty VAST 3.0 responses to show that they have received the request but do not wish to fill it. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-900:60001 - **60002** — Fatal. The amount of ad impressions your account has generated in the calendar month exceeds the specified limit. Cause: . Recommended action: Contact your JW Player sales representative for more details or for upgrade options. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-60002 - **60003** — Fatal. The viewer has an ad blocker app or extension installed for their browser. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-60003 - **60004** — Fatal. Issue with CDN server. Timeout (in milliseconds) when loading a VPAID ad response. If loading takes longer than this timeout, the ad playback is canceled. Cause: Can be caused by low bandwidth, or poor website implementation with competing requests that delay the loading of the VPAID ad response. Recommended action: he timeout is configurable for using the creativeTimeout and requestTimeout configuration options. However, increasing the timeout could potentially negatively affect user experience. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-60004 - **1002:60005** — Fatal. No Ad element in VAST document after following wrappers. Cause: When working with third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors. You can check to ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. Some ad providers use empty VAST 3.0 responses to show that they have received the request but do not wish to fill it. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1002:60005 - **900:60006** — Fatal. An ad tag failed to download, but not inside of a wrapper. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-900:60006 - **900:60007** — Fatal. An ad tag failed to play because of an unsupported operating system. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-900:60007 - **60900** — Fatal. Unknown error. Cause: . · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-60900 ### IMA3 SDK Errors (1005 – 2048) - **1005 / 900:1005** — Fatal. The Ad Request Failed. Cause: There has been a CORS error when the IMA SDK attempted to request the add / process the VAST document. Recommended action: Ensure that all ad server URIs, media file URIs and tracking URIs follow CORS best practices (see https://enable-cors.org/ ). Also ensure that your players are not embedded in non-approved domains. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1005 - **1007** — Fatal. Media Asset Not Found. Cause: Could not find a media file that is supported by this video player, based on the attributes of the MediaFile element.This may indicate that the wrong creative type attempted to play. This error type is more common on mobile. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure the right media file format is being targeted to the right device type. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1007 - **1007 / 900:1007** — Fatal. Media Asset Not Found. Cause: Could not find a media file that is supported by this video player, based on the attributes of the MediaFile element.This may indicate that the wrong creative type attempted to play. This error type is more common on mobile. Recommended action: Publisher – Alert the buyer. Buyer – Ensure the right media file format is being targeted to the right device type. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-900:1007 - **1009 / 900:1009 / 900:21009** — Fatal. Empty VAST Response. Cause: No ads VAST response after one or more wrappers. This also includes the number of empty VAST responses from fallback. When working with third-party networks, the fill-rate can be less than 100%. If so, this is an expected error. For example, if the third-party expects to fill 60% of the time, you should expect 40% errors. Recommended action: Check to ensure that the error rate is in line with the fill-rate of the third-party network. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1009 - **1010 / 900:1010, / 900:21010** — Fatal. Unknown Ad Response. Cause: The response from the ad server was malformed or indeterminate. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1010 - **1011 / 900:1011** — Fatal. Unsupported Locale. Cause: The locale specified for the SDK is not supported. Recommended action: Check the settings of the IMA SDK to ensure locale is set properly. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1011 - **1105 / 900:1105** — Fatal. Invalid AdX Extension. Cause: An invalid AdX extension was found. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1105 - **1012 / 900:1012 / 900:21012** — Fatal. Request blocked / Network error. Cause: There was a problem requesting ads from the server due to an error caused by an invalid or malformed XML file. Recommended action: Contact your Ad server support team for more help. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1012 - **1013 / 900:1013** — Fatal. Invalid ad tag. Cause: The ad tag URL specified was invalid. It needs to be properly encoded. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1013 - **1020 / 900:1020** — Fatal. Stream initialisation failed. Cause: There was an error with stream initialisation during server side ad insertion. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1020 - **1021 / 900:1021 / 900:21021** — Fatal. Asset fallback no ad replacement. Cause: The fallback failed to return an ad. Recommended action: Ensure your line items are properly setup and you have sufficient demand in your fallback sequence. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1021 - **1101 / 900:1101** — Fatal. Invalid Arguments in the Request. Cause: Invalid arguments were provided to IMA SDK methods. Recommended action: Please contact the support team of your video player provider. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1101 - **1205 / 900:1205** — Fatal. The browser prevented playback initiated without user interaction. Cause: Autoplay videos are not supported in some browsers. This error is thrown when the browser has prevent an attempt to auto play. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-1205 - **2025 / 900:2025** — Fatal. DisplayObject not a child. Recommended action: See Google Support for help – https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/reference/js/google.ima.AdError?hl=en. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-2025 - **2032 / 900:2032** — Fatal. URL access blocked. Recommended action: See Google Support for help – https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/reference/js/google.ima.AdError?hl=en. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-2032 - **2035 / 900:2035** — Fatal. Incorrect path to assets. Recommended action: See Google Support for help – https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/reference/js/google.ima.AdError?hl=en. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-2035 - **2036 / 900:2036** — Fatal. Flash ad failed to load. Recommended action: See Google Support for help – https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/reference/js/google.ima.AdError?hl=en. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-2036 - **2048 / 900:2048** — Fatal. CORS security violation. Cause: This is caused when a page or player loaded using HTTPS tries to load a ad resource over HTTP. Recommended action: Check and ensure all creative and redirect URIs are being served over HTTPS. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-2048 ### Freewheel Errors - **req-failed** — Fatal. Ad Request Failed. Cause: Most likely an ad blocker interferes with the ad request. Could also be a https/http mismatch in a redirect or bad network conditions. Recommended action: Check for ad blocking and ensure any redirect tags used are secured. Also look for error clustering around mobiles or other devices that use low bandwidth connections. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-req-failed - **_e_3p-comp** — Fatal. 3rd-party component error. Cause: A 3rd party ad creative has failed to load. This could be a video file formatting mismatch or a creative script error (such as a faulty VPAID unit). Recommended action: Review the Creative in question and ensure its format matches the Placement / Targeting set. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_3p-comp - **_e_timeout** — Fatal. Ad timeout. Cause: The time allotted for the ad request to complete has expired. Recommended action: Let the player increase the timeout time by setting the respective timeout parameter (for example, on iOS video it should be “renderer.video.timeout”). · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_timeout - **_e_security** — Fatal. Security error. Cause: There has been a network security error thrown somewhere along the ad fulfilment chain. Recommended action: Check and confirm the format of the creative asset, especially its hosting setup to ensure it doesn’t violate any CORS policy. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_security - **_e_io** — Fatal. Network i/o error. Cause: The ad tag used did not return a valid HTTP response. Recommended action: Try out the ad tag in a browser to ensure proper response from the server. Ensure there are no typos or unfilled macros. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_io - **_e_no-ad** — Fatal. No Ad Returned. Cause: A 3rd party ad server did not return an ad for this request.This error is only counted when it can be recognised as a “no ad” situation, such as empty VAST response, or VAST response without valid ads. In comparison, the VPAID 1.0 protocol allows creatives to throw errors, but didn’t specify a clear way to specify the error reason as “no ad”, so the VPAID ad cannot generate this error but will only generate e unknown error instead. Recommended action: Notify the 3rd party platform of this error and its location to begin troubleshooting. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_no-ad - **_e_no-renderer** — Fatal. No Renderer Selected. Cause: Most typically occurring in mobile apps, the device is unable to render the delivered creative file. Recommended action: Ensure a support file format is delivered to the right device. Also check that the right rendering libraries are included in the native code. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_no-renderer - **_e_parse** — Fatal. Ad parse error. Cause: There was a problem requesting ads from the server due to an error caused by an invalid or malformed XML file. Recommended action: Contact your Ad server support team for more help. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-_e_parse - **INVALID_ASSET_CUSTOM_ID** — Non-fatal. Invalid Asset ID. Cause: The video asset id cannot be found in Freewheel MRM system. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-INVALID_ASSET_CUSTOM_ID - **ASSET_DURATION_NOT_AVAILABLE** — Non-fatal. Video Asset Duration is Not Available. Cause: asset.duration doesn’t appear in adRequest, and doesn’t exist in db. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-ASSET_DURATION_NOT_AVAILABLE - **INVALID_ASSET_DURATION** — Non-fatal. Asset Duration Not Valid. Cause: asset.duration is invalid (less than 1, string, etc…). · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-INVALID_ASSET_DURATION - **NETWORK_NOT_FOUND** — Fatal. FW Network ID Not Found. Cause: he network id set in the AdManager was no valid. · https://www.watchingthat.com/glossary/#code-NETWORK_NOT_FOUND --- ## Blog — every post 30 posts at https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/, newest first. The same list as a machine-readable feed: https://www.watchingthat.com/rss.xml. - [If Data is Missing You End Up Guessing. You Might As Well Bet It All On Black.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/if-data-is-missing-you-end-up-guessing-you-might-as-well-bet-it-all-on-black/) — 2024-10-04. Discover how streaming and broadcasting operations teams can reduce guesswork and risks by leveraging real-time data, automation, and comprehensive analytics. Learn strategies to optimize decision-making in high-stakes environments. - [From Operator to Supervisor. Revolutionise Your Daily Ad Operations](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/from-operator-to-supervisor-revolutionise-your-daily-ad-operations/) — 2024-09-17. Did you blink? Then you've missed it. In digital ad operations you need to move from the operator to the supervisor. Here at 3 ways. - [It's the US Election - do you know where your political ads are streaming? Here's how to meet your FTC obligations.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/its-the-us-election-do-you-know-where-your-political-ads-are-running-heres-how-to-meet-your-ftc-obligations/) — 2024-07-31. At the time of writing there are only 100 days left to the 2024 US elections. It will be the most streamed election in history and the biggest spend of. - [Mid-Year Product Updates: Exciting New Features and Enhancements](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/mid-year-product-updates-exciting-new-features-and-enhancements/) — 2024-07-11. As we pass the halfway mark of the year, we're excited to share the latest product updates and enhancements that have been rolled out so far. Our team has As we pass the halfway mark of the year, we're excited to share the latest product updates and enhancements that have been rolled out so far. Our team has been working tirelessly to bring you new features that improve functionality, streamline processes, and provide greater insights. - [18 Billion Potential Points of Ad Delivery Failure. Here's How You Protect Yourself.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/18-billion-potential-points-of-ad-delivery-failure-heres-how-you-protect-yourself/) — 2024-06-26. 18,631,973,192. That's the number of permutations of ad inventory that makes up a typical 24 hrs for an ad supported broadcaster. 2,282 Ad Creatives, Use Watching That's Validation Monitors protect you from ad delivery failure by preventing errors in the human inputs when setting up campaigns. - [From Overwhelmed to In Total Control. How a Billion a Month Broadcaster Transformed their Ad Monitoring.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/from-overwhelmed-to-in-total-control-how-a-billion-a-month-broadcaster-transformed-their-ad-monitoring/) — 2024-06-18. "What do you mean we haven't been serving ads on for over a week?!?!" "How did this happen?!" "Why didn't we notice it sooner?!" "This is going to. - [Avoid Ad Overload and Bad Ad Experiences. Keep on top of Your Exposure Rates](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/avoid-ad-overload-bad-ad-experiences-keep-on-top-of-your-ad-exposure-rates/) — 2024-06-11. Over exposing your viewers to ads can have catastrophic effects. But under exposing them leaves money on the table. How do you get it right? Bad ad. - [How to Easily and Quickly Setup A Viewer Complaint Response System That Works](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/how-to-easily-and-quickly-setup-viewer-complaint-response-system-that-works/) — 2024-06-05. Are you tired of chasing your tail when it comes to responding to viewer complaints? Always being the last to know something isn't right, and then not. - [Let’s Talk About…. Ad Revenue Monitoring](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/lets-talk-about-ad-revenue-monitoring/) — 2024-05-23. In the world of streaming video, if you blink you’ve missed it. And if you’ve missed it then you can get into trouble pretty quickly. Small issues. - [Unveiling Inspect: Find The Needles In Your Inventory Haystacks](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/unveiling-inspect-find-the-needles-in-your-inventory-haystacks/) — 2024-02-20. We are thrilled to introduce our latest module in the Watching That Analytics and Monitoring Platform: Inspect. This powerful addition is designed to. - [Streaming Media Businesses Must Revolutionise their Revenue Monitoring Solutions. Now.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/streaming-media-businesses-must-revolutionise-their-revenue-monitoring-solutions-now/) — 2024-02-12. In the fast-paced world of streaming media, where every second counts, revenue operations are at a critical juncture. Their days are akin to. - [Watching That's Predictions for Streaming TV in 2024](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/watching-thats-predictions-for-streaming-tv-in-2024/) — 2024-01-02. While 2023 will be remembered as a tough year for Tech and Media, Streaming TV has continued its growth trajectory with the surge in FAST channels and ad With plenty of noise around for the year ahead, we asked our team for their predictions based on what they’ve seen happening over the past few months. - [Monitoring Pixel: total continuous monitoring of all your inventory with Watching That, code free!](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/one-pixel-no-code-total-continuous-coverage/) — 2023-11-24. Are you a revenue or technical operations professional in a streaming video business? Or an executive in charge of ensuring your business is maximising. - [Mega Product Update: Q4 2023](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/mega-product-update-q4-2023/) — 2023-11-01. We’ve updated the Watching That platform – across the board. We have new ways of connecting your data, visualizing your data, and troubleshooting your. - [Complete Your Ad-Tech Jigsaw Puzzle](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/complete-your-ad-tech-jigsaw-puzzle/) — 2023-10-02. From today, users of Watching That can easily connect to even more critical sources of data. Along with our current library of turn key player plugins and. - [Let's Talk About... Sell Through Rate for CTV](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/lets-talk-about-sell-through-rate/) — 2023-08-21. In the digital world from – eCommerce to video advertising – the metric Sell Through Rate is a key performance indicator. Because of its importance to. - [Welcome Zak and James](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/welcome-zak-and-james/) — 2023-08-21. Zak Khalid and James Carr Join the Team Here at Watching That, we’re delighted to announce two new hires – Zak Khalid and James Carr – to our growing. - [How A+E Networks uses Watching That for their FAST Channels](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/how-ae-networks-uses-watching-that-for-their-fast-channels/) — 2023-08-10. “When it comes to analyzing FAST channel data and performance, the A+E team leverages multiple Watching That resources.” says A+E Networks VP Revenue Operations, R. Lee Barstow. - [Dimension Focus: Campaign Hierarchy](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/dimension-focus-campaign-hierarchy/) — 2023-08-07. For Operations teams tasked with ensuring advertising campaigns are delivering to their full potential, there is a hierarchy of component Dimensions. - [Dimension Focus: Content](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/dimension-focus-content/) — 2023-07-24. People don’t come to your service for the ads - they come for the content. So in this Dimension Focus we’ll look at the dimensions that can help. - [Watching That's Real-Time Data Monitoring Story](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/watching-thats-real-time-data-monitoring-story/) — 2023-05-18. Watching That has been named a Finalist in the 2023 Cynopsis Measure Up Awards, in the 'Best Tool for Real-Time Reporting' category. We're really excited Always-on, near real-time monitoring is just one aspect of the Watching That experience. We also offer customisable reports, comprehensive troubleshooting, with our customer support team with a background in video and data analysis. - [Dimension Focus: Device Type](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/dimension-focus-device-type/) — 2023-04-21. In this Dimension Focus we explore the Device Type dimension. Device Type Device Type is a dimension that describes what device an ad was viewed on. But. - [Trump was indicted. Here’s how we knew it was big news.](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/trump-was-indicted-heres-how-we-knew-it-was-big-news/) — 2023-04-06. Our data platform is always-on, and reports in near-real time. This means if something big happens we see it immediately reflected in the data we collect On March 30 2023, at 17.30 the news broke that former US President Donald Trump had been indicted. Across the USA, viewers turned to streaming news to hear the full story. - [Dimension Focus: FW: Selling Partner](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/dimension-focus-fw-selling-partner/) — 2023-03-13. In this post we’re spending a little time with one of our most commonly used Dimensions, FW: Selling Partner. Most of our Freewheel customers use selling. - [IAB's Compass report points the way for the UK’s CTV future](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/iabs-compass-report-points-the-way-for-the-uks-ctv-future/) — 2023-02-08. As an IAB Member, we were excited to see the release of the Compass report on CTV this week. Sitting alongside reports on Gaming, Shoppable Advertising. - [Surviving CTV’s Awkward Adolescent Phase](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/surviving-ctvs-awkward-adolescent-phase/) — 2023-01-26. This text is based on a talk Cameron Church gave at the Future of TV Advertising Global event in December 2022. Read the full article below, but. - [The Future of TV Advertising Global: 5 Things We Loved (1 Thing We Didn't)](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/the-future-of-tv-advertising-global-5-things-we-loved-1-thing-we-didnt/) — 2022-12-12. This week the Watching That UK team descended on King’s Cross for Mediatel’s Future of TV Advertising Global event. Our CEO Cameron graced the stage at. - [The Tyranny of Data Decay, and How To Avoid It](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/the-tyranny-of-data-decay-and-how-to-avoid-it/) — 2022-12-02. Whether we’re talking about dentistry or data, decay is real, but it’s also very preventable. The concept of data decay refers to how the value of data The concept of data decay refers to how the value of data reduces over time. When we’re talking advertising and media - the timeframes are tiny, and the impact of the decay is huge. - [CTV Predictions for 2023](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/ctv-predictions-for-2023/) — 2022-11-18. Last year gave us plenty of surprises, with global issues affecting life at every level, let alone the media industry. The is no doubt that these issues Predictions for the Connected TV (CTV) industry for 2023 by watching that monitoring platform. - [How Did We Do? Our 2022 CTV Predictions Revisited](https://www.watchingthat.com/blog/how-did-we-do-our-2022-ctv-predictions-revisited/) — 2022-11-10. This time last year we made six predictions about what was going to happen in CTV this year (2022). Did we get it 🎯 spot on, in the right ⚾️ ball-park, or Watching That Predict the future for CTV Connected TV. --- ## Accuracy notes - **Supported ad servers.** FreeWheel and Google Ad Manager. SpringServe is supported by Anomaly Monitors, not by Validation Monitors. - **Monitor cadence.** "Every ten minutes or so" — cadence varies per rule, so it isn't a fixed ten-minute guarantee. - **What Validation Monitors watch.** Daypart breaches, frequency-cap drift, SSAI template errors, partner-feed bid floor drift, creative-compliance violations, freeze-window slips. Not infrastructure monitoring (that is Datadog and Splunk territory), not page-load performance, not viewability. - **Customers.** The companies Watching That names publicly are A+E Global Media, New York Post, Sky, Foxtel, DISH Network, Fandom, and Scripps — no others. A+E Global Media and New York Post are the two with published case studies. - **Founded.** 2016, in London. --- ## Optional Secondary sources — skip these when context is short. - [Technical documentation (WTUG)](https://watchingthat.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/WTUG/overview): data schema, integrations, API reference, runbooks. - [Sitemap](https://www.watchingthat.com/sitemap-index.xml): full machine-readable URL index. - [llms.txt](https://www.watchingthat.com/llms.txt): the short index this file expands on. - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/watching-that): company profile.