Video Player Specifications

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About VAST

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Video Player Requirements

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Main Requirements

• Video should load at the load of the page, even if not in the viewport.
• Video must only start playing automatically when the player has 50% of pixels in the viewport.
• Video should pause automatically when the player is in less than 50% of the viewport.
  • the “pause” beacon should not be fired in this case scenario.
• Video should resume automatically when the player is back in more than 50% of the viewport
  • the “resume” beacon should not be fired in this case scenario.
• Video should repeat indefinitely.
• Video should be muted automatically at launch:
  • The mute beacon must not be fired because this mute action does not represent an interaction from the user.
  • A control button must be available to unmute it.
• Another control button should be available to pause/resume the video.
  • The pause/resume button is optional, no matter if there is a redirection link available in the VAST XML. This is due to the fact that the video should play automatically when in the viewport and pause when not - and simply takes additional space on the video.
  • Other controls should be hidden.
• Video cannot be viewed in full screen.
• Video can be clickable and redirect to a page only if a redirection link is present (<VideoClicks> present in VAST XML).
• The video player used by the client must be able to read VAST XML files (e.g., Google Interactive Media Ads player or a native HTML player with an additional JavaScript layer that can handle VAST XML files). Please visit the Video Player Implementation page for more details.

• Pause playback when the user navigates away from the browser tab or window where the video ad is playing,
• Resume playback automatically when the user returns to the tab/window, preserving the previous playback state (e.g., mute status, timestamp),
• Do not count video impressions, play-through events, or viewability metrics while the tab is inactive, in accordance with MRC viewability guidelines.

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With / without Redirection Links

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With no redirection links

• a click on the video should pause the video, and:
  • the Pause beacon should be fired
• a new click on the video should resume the video:
  • the Resume beacon should be fired

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With a redirection link

• a click on the video should redirect the user to the Clickthrough URL, and:
  • the Clicktracking beacon must be fired,
  • the Pause beacon must NOT be fired.

• If a video is paused manually (after a click on the Pause button or by clicking on the video if there isn’t a redirection URL), goes in less than 50% of the viewport and comes back in more than 50% of the viewport, the video should resume.
  • However, the Resume beacon should not be fired because this is not a manual action from the user.

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If the User Clicks on Pause/Resume

• The Clicktracking beacon must not be fired because this is a click on the pause button, not on the video itself.
• The button should change from ⏸️ to ▶️.
• The pause beacon should only be fired when the user clicks on the Pause button or clicks on the video if there is no redirection link provided when playing.
• If the user clicks on Play/Resume after having paused the video, the Resume beacon should be fired.
  • The Clicktracking beacon must not be fired because this is a click on the pause button, not on the video itself.
  • The button should change from ▶️ to ⏸️.
  • The Resume beacon should only be fired when the user clicks on the Resume button or clicks on the video if there is no redirection link provided and video is paused.

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Multiple Video Files

• Multiple video files (MediaFiles) can be returned in the same VAST XML by Criteo, but only one of them must be rendered per VAST XML. Video files may differ in ratios. Supported video ratios are 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1.
  • If a single video is returned in the VAST XML, it must be selected by default.
  • If multiple videos are provided, the closest video ratio (compared to the ad placement’s video ratio) must be selected.

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Closed Caption (CC)

• If the CC file is present:
  • it must be rendered by the video player.
  • a CC control button must be available, next to other control buttons (mute/pause).
• If there is no CC file provided in the VAST XML, the CC control button should be hidden.
• At video launch, Closed Captioning must be enabled automatically.
• Maximum one CC file can be provided in the VAST XML, ensuring a single language support.

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VAST XML Example

<MediaFiles>
  <MediaFile id="c2bf93dcf6e4d6f9dd150c4e4f8c222_discover_miracle_moisture_boost_with_rose_water"
             delivery="progressive"
             width="640"
             height="360"
             type="video/mp4"
             scalable="true"
             maintainAspectRatio="true">
    <![CDATA[https://static.criteo.net/design/dt/commerce_max/retailer_1209/c2bf593dcf6e4d6f9dd150c4e4f8c222_discover_miracle_moisture_boost_with_rose_water.mp4]]>
    &lt;ClosedCaptionFiles&gt;
      &lt;ClosedCaptionFile type="text/vtt" language="en"&gt;
        <![CDATA[https://staticassets-creator-design.criteo.net/captions/45fdce79-5556-4874-b139-bb09648436f2_water.mp4.vtt]]>
      &lt;/ClosedCaptionFile&gt;
    &lt;/ClosedCaptionFiles&gt;
  &lt;/MediaFile&gt;
&lt;/MediaFiles&gt;

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What’s next

• Tracking ad-related activity
• Criteo-Owned Video Player Integration