Starting today (21st of June, 2022), you may see many changes on the broadpeak.io website. We just launched our new application: Virtual Channel – which we are very excited about.
On top of this, you will also notice that the Blackout application has been renamed Content Replacement.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
- What does this mean?
We are renaming the application itself. But we are not altering the concept of the API which was available with Blackout, or the technology. The change is mostly cosmetic and is only related to the name of the application and of the API (new Content Replacement guide is available here in the Knowledge Center).
If you have already created Blackout services, you will still have them, we will not touch them or ask you to remove them. The application will stay available on the webapp although it will not be advertised as such on our website anymore.
- Why are we doing this?
Since the day we launched the Blackout application, we knew that it was possible to use the concept for other similar use cases. A good example of that is “Simsub”, an important regulation unique to Canada, which requires video service providers to substitute some American channels for other Canadian ones. Consequently, some Canadian tenants used our Blackout application for this (see this article for more information on Simsub).
Actually, soon after the launch of the service on the 18th of January, 2022, we realized that our customers, partners and internal stakeholders started using the Blackout APIs for several other implementations. Word on the street was that we did not bring a Blackout API to the market, but much more a Scheduling API, able to trigger any kind of content replacement in a feed, based on any criteria/audience.
More ideas followed. We started to believe that keeping the name “Blackout” was, at best, limiting the potential of the application itself, and at worst, confusing our customers and the market. We finally decided to rename the application. While much more generic, it is much more descriptive: the Content Replacement app.
- What about the Blackout API?
The Blackout API is not going to be removed in the short term. We will deprecate it while we let you migrate to the Content Replacement API based on your own timing. If you have any questions, please reach out or check our knowledge center for more information.
- Ways to use Content Replacement
On the Content Replacement pages, we have listed all the use cases we have encountered recently using the Content Replacement app. Please go ahead and see if it fits one of your cases. If not, and the API is still a good fit for you, build your own use case ?. That’s the beauty of an open API, and if successful and deployed, we will add you to the “HoFoUC” (the Hall of Fame of Use Cases)!
- Availability and pricing
Based on Blackout, Content Replacement is already available in General Availability. You can currently find all the information you need in our knowledge center.
Moreover, the pricing does not change. It is still based on the same metrics. We invite you to check the pricing page to see the public fees of the Pay-As-You-Go model.
