How Magnite and Vidio are revolutionising OTT monetisation in Indonesia

As over-the-top (OTT) consumption continues to surge across Southeast Asia, publishers and advertisers are turning to advanced ad tech to unlock new revenue streams and improve campaign performances.

Indonesia, in particular, is seeing a rapid acceleration in connected TV (CTV) adoption, with at least 61% of ad-supported viewers in Indonesia watching content on smart TVs always or most of the time in a typical week, according to a 2024 SEA report by Magnite.

The market is also seeing increased smartphone penetration and streaming accessibility, with 99.5% of Indonesians owning a mobile phone and 68.5% of the country’s internet users consuming TV – be it streaming or online – according to a We Are Social 2025 report.

In this context, one of Indonesia’s leading streaming platforms Vidio, part of Emtek Media, and home to major sports broadcasts such as the FIFA World Cup and English Premier League, has set the benchmark for effective OTT monetisation. With over 50 million monthly active users, and more than two billion monthly ad impressions, Vidio partnered with ad tech firm Magnite to address inefficiencies in its legacy ad stack and unify direct-sold and programmatic demand.

In Q1 2025, Vidio reported a notable shift in live sports consumption, with 35% of viewing taking place on connected TVs. Vidio viewers also spent twice as many hours watching sports on CTVs daily compared with mobile devices.

Powered by Magnite SpringServe’s mediation technology, the collaboration enabled Vidio to eliminate VAST 303 errors, reduce latency, boost yield, and streamline operations, resulting in an 80% increase in the volume of daily monetised impressions.

In this interview, MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke to Magnite’s Mete Bargmann, senior director, business development, JAPAC, and Emtek Media’s Haswar Hafid, deputy director of digital and emerging media, to unpack how this transformation unfolded, and what it means for broadcasters and advertisers navigating the future of TV in Southeast Asia.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: For those that may not be familiar, can you provide an overview of Vidio’s scale and notable trends of the audiences streaming on your services?

Hafid: Vidio’s audience has been growing rapidly, and with over two billion monthly impressions to monetise, we recognised the need for a more advanced solution. Our previous ad server, which relied on manual decisioning and waterfall prioritisation, served its purpose during Vidio’s early growth phase.

However, as we continue growing, we saw the opportunity to address its limitations on managing demand sources effectively and maximising revenue. We wanted to decrease revenue loss from VAST 303 errors, latency from non-unified auctions, constraints around ad deduplication and competitive separation, and the need for differentiated pricing to premium inventory.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How do technology partners such as Magnite work with publishers to empower them to deliver better performances?

Bargmann: Magnite focuses on building technology tailored to streaming media owners – tackling challenges beyond monetisation to power the next phase of innovation. We’ve expanded our capabilities to help media owners navigate and thrive in today’s dynamic media landscape.

The ad server is a particularly strategic component in the CTV/OTT advertising stack, and our unified CTV/OTT platform, SpringServe, is a key differentiator in the market by providing publishers with a holistic yield management solution that works across their entire video advertising business to drive value.

This includes managing multiple aspects of video advertising for streaming TV publishers such as inventory routing, customised ad experiences, and advanced podding logic, while intelligently integrating programmatic demand, enabling competition between traditional direct and programmatic campaigns.

Recently, we announced a major milestone in Magnite’s journey where we unveiled the next generation of SpringServe that combines SpringServe’s ad serving and mediation capabilities with Magnite streaming’s programmatic tools into a single interface – under the SpringServe brand.

We believe there’s a simpler way to buy and sell inventory by unifying ad serving, mediation and programmatic into a single stack, which is our reason behind this decision to bring our programmatic capabilities under SpringServe. Combining these platforms into one removes a layer between buyers and media owners, and enables us to develop a more holistic monetisation solution for media owners.

This change marks a new chapter of innovation and it positions us to better support streaming publishers into the future. We’re fortunate to have partners like Vidio, who is a long-standing, valued partner, and one that embraces innovation and shares our vision for leveraging technology to elevate video monetisation to the next level.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: For publishers with massive scale such as Vidio, how can the right technology help?

Hafid: For publishers like Vidio operating at massive scale, we want to balance two things: delivering a seamless viewer experience and maximising monetisation. This means ensuring low latency, maintaining relevance in ad delivery, managing ad pod geometry and slot positioning intelligently, applying differentiated pricing to premium inventory, and upholding the highest standards of brand safety. The right technology allows us to address these areas simultaneously, so we can continue to deliver premium content with the ad experience our audiences and advertisers expect.

SpringServe has been instrumental in addressing these challenges. Its advanced ad podding logic allows us to manage slot positions more effectively, ensuring a more seamless viewing experience. The platform also enables differentiated pricing strategies within a single pod, helping us to maximise yield on premium inventory. Additionally, SpringServe provides robust controls that support brand safety standards, allowing us to maintain advertiser trust while optimising ad delivery across our platform.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: How was SpringServe’s mediation technology the right fit, and how has it helped Vidio in your monetisation process?

Hafid: We wanted a technology partner that could solve the challenges we mentioned earlier, as well as a solution that could seamlessly integrate programmatic demand from various SSPs and be compatible with our primary ad server. SpringServe’s mediation technology was able to fit into our tech stack while solving those challenges. The seamless integration with our primary ad server has been a game-changer for our business.

Mediation has enabled us to maximise revenue, where real-time competition among multiple demand sources ensured we receive the highest CPM available for each impression. It significantly reduced our ad operations workload with live reporting, halved ops time, and eliminated VAST 303 errors, boosting the volume of daily monetised impressions by 80%.

The integration also helped expand reach for premium content, improved audience match rates, and increased bids, delivering better yield and advertiser outcomes. These capabilities have enabled us to boost monetisation across our advertising business. The technology integration and support from the Magnite team have truly exceeded our expectations.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: From an advertiser’s perspective, how has access to more advanced ad technology helped you drive better campaign performances and deliver stronger results?

Hafid: The integration has helped expand reach for premium content, improved audience match rates, and increased bids, ultimately delivering better yield and stronger outcomes for advertisers.

A notable example of this success was seen with leading FMCG brand Unilever, which became the first brand in Indonesia to run a scaled mediation campaign on Vidio’s environment, powered by SpringServe technology. Real-time optimisation at Vidio was enabled through Magnite’s transparent reporting tools, allowing Unilever to leverage SpringServe’s dynamic reporting and auction transparency to fine-tune targeting, pacing, and frequency in near real-time. Together, Unilever, Vidio, and Magnite set a new benchmark for OTT advertising performance in Indonesia.

The campaign achieved a completion rate of over 92%, outperforming regional benchmarks by 80%. The view-ability rate surpassed 70%, ensuring high-quality brand exposure across all screens and meeting Unilever’s own standards.

This enabled Unilever to scale and maximise reach within Vidio’s premium CTV environment, delivering deeper brand engagement. Ad load times also improved, which helped reduce bounce rates and enhanced the overall viewer experience.

From a business perspective, the Unilever campaign on Vidio with Magnite significantly improved ROI and view-through rates, driving a strong uplift in brand health metrics, including awareness, favourability, and intent.

The success also strengthened Unilever’s internal case for shifting more of its budget towards open-internet OTT and CTV buys in Indonesia. Most importantly, it demonstrated how publishers such as Vidio can provide a scalable, and performance-driven OTT environment, optimising audience reach while maintaining a positive and premium ad experience.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE: With Indonesia opening up to programmatic activation and CTV growth, what advice do you have for broadcasters and advertisers that are treading this path?

Bargmann: We are thrilled to see the positive impact SpringServe has had on Vidio’s operations and revenue to address the unique challenges of their business and we look forward to continuing our partnership to optimise their technology and deliver an exceptional experience for both audiences and advertisers.

As broadcasters and advertisers in Indonesia embrace programmatic activation, and the growth of CTV, it’s crucial to prioritise technologies that enable seamless integration across platforms. One key strategy is to implement real-time competition between direct campaigns and programmatic demand. This ensures that each impression is sold at the highest possible CPM, maximising revenue potential.

A seamless integration with SSPs and DSPs significantly increases demand and allows publishers to tap into a broader pool of premium buyers. By unifying ad serving, mediation, and programmatic under one stack, media owners can simplify operations, improve monetisation, and enhance overall campaign performances.

This article was written in collaboration with Magnite.