This article introduces offers and explains how they're used to control the content available to your end-users.
Topics covered here:
- What are offers?
- Initial offers
- Custom offers
- Global offers
- Offer types explained
- How dates work on offers
- Offer states
- Viewing asset offers
- Re-instantiating offers
Note: Deals and offers are usually ingested or set up by the backend team on a per-project basis.
What are offers?
Offers are a set of rules that, alongside deals, are used to display and monetize assets to different user groups.
The diagram below illustrates how rules, assets, users, and user groups interlink. Other categories of rules are plans and subscriptions, which control the billing used to access a user group. Here we're focussing on the rules as they relate to offers.
Offers allow you to control who can access your assets and how those assets are presented to end-users in your apps. Assets with no offers can't be played. Furthermore, in order to be offered, an asset must be part of a deal.
Depending on an end-user's subscription agreement and signed-in status, you can use an offer to upsell, or in other words, entice them to expand or enhance their current subscription plan, thereby promoting loyalty and increasing sales.
A typical use case is if a popular asset is only offered to users on a 12-month plan. This could upsell that plan to users who subscribe month to month.
Offers frequently coincide with the entitlement a user has to play an asset. Our entitlements article has more information on how this works. Be sure to also check out our rules infographic - it illustrates how rules come together to make assets available to users through subscription entitlements.
Offer templates: how assets get their offers
- Initial offers are added automatically from the deal the asset's associated with (i.e., during ingestion)
- Custom offers are defined directly at asset-level
- Global offers are referenced at asset-level
Note: Typically, offers are instantiated (refreshed) automatically from a deal as part of a "zero-touch" publishing workflow. Custom and global offers are only required in cases where manual intervention/modification is required.
1. Initial offers
The primary method through which assets obtain offers is by inheriting them from a deal at the point of ingestion. These are initial offers and are shown in the Initial Offers tab when viewing a deal.
If no initial offers are inherited on ingestion as part of the deal, you have the option to add custom or global offers. This is known as adding offers at the asset level (adding directly to the asset) rather than at the point of ingestion.
2. Custom offers
Custom offers are created at the asset level and directly applied to the selected asset.
To add a custom offer, find the relevant asset in the asset catalog, and select Offers in the left-hand navigation. Select the Add a custom offer link.
This opens the New Offer page where you can create an offer for the selected asset. Read more about offer details and the relevant fields in offer types explained, below.
3. Global offers
Global offers are groups of offers that once defined, can be imported onto an asset. Global offers tend to be used for seasonal content such as holiday promotions and can be applied across multiple assets and deals.
Add existing global offers at the asset level by entering or selecting the name of an existing global offer into the add a global offer field. Read our related article to find out how to create a new global offer.
Offer types explained
The discoverability and playback conditions of an asset depend on the offer type (as well as the asset type). Within each offer type are individual rulesets for when, where, and how the content is offered to specific user groups. As mentioned previously, these offer rulesets are typically defined as part of a deal and automatically instantiated on assets during ingestion.
Note: If you own the rights and control the licensing of your content, you won't need to model any additional offer limitations.
Offer types include:
- Free offers, including coming soon
- Subscription offers
- Transactional offers (EST and rental)
Click on an option below to learn more about these offer types and the fields used to define them (note that for custom offers, defined directly at individual asset level, an item type does not need to be selected):
Content belonging to a free offer does not require any user-specific entitlements for playback.
What are free offers used for?
- AVOD platforms not requiring a subscription or registration to view movie or TV content.
- Secondary content like trailers, extras, and channels, which don't typically require an entitlement or are available to everyone.
- System offers: These are for internal use only. Although not offerable or playable, they allow operators to publish non-offerable assets into the asset catalog, such as links, custom assets, and ratings.
- Coming soon offers: Allows users to discover content that is not yet playable.
Details captured for a free offer include:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Label | The name of the offer. |
| Users (mandatory) | Defaults to any user, or select from your configured user groups, e.g., premium, standard, visitor, etc. |
| Segmentation Tags | Target specific groups of users as defined by your segmentation tags. |
| Item Type (mandatory) | Select the type of asset the offer is to be applied to, i.e., channel, episode, movie, program, season, show, or trailer. |
| Delivery Type (mandatory) - context-sensitive, depending on the selected Item Type | This field is hidden for non-consumable asset types like channel & show. Select either: download, progressive download (trailer only), stream, or stream or download. Default is usually stream or stream or download. |
| File Type (mandatory) | Select a file format, for example: 4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD. Defaults to external |
| Start date and/or end date (relative or absolute) | Set offer activation/deactivation dates; these can be scheduled for a future date. See the following section for more information on dates. |
| Offset (relative dates only) | Add offsets of time to relative dates by specifying weeks, days, hours, and minutes. |
Subscription offers require an active subscription entitlement for playback. Users must be registered to a plan to have a valid subscription entitlement. For more information, view the plans and subscriptions and user groups articles.
What are subscription offers used for?
Subscription offers are used to target specific audiences who are entitled to certain assets under their subscription plan. For users without the required entitlement, assets under a subscription offer display a subscribe CTA button (call to action) rather than a watch button.
Subscription Offer details include:
| Field name | Details |
|---|---|
| Label | The name of the offer. |
| Users (mandatory) | Defaults to any user. Alternatively, select from your existing user groups, e.g., premium, standard, or visitor. |
| Segmentation Tags | Target specific groups of users as defined by your segmentation tags. |
| Item Type | Select either: channel, episode, movie, program, or season. |
| Delivery Type (n/a for Channel asset type) | For all other asset types, this is automatically set to stream. |
| File Type | Select a file format, for example: 4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD. Defaults to external. |
| Start date and end date (relative or absolute) | Set offer activation/deactivation dates.These can be scheduled for a future date. Learn more about dates below. |
| Offset (relative dates only) | Add offsets of time to relative dates by specifying weeks, days, hours, and minutes. |
Transactional offer content requires an asset entitlement for playback (via transaction).
What are transactional offers used for?
- Purchase offers: Electronic sell-through (EST) - end-users are given unlimited access to the asset at a cost.
- Rental offers: Downloads to rent (DTR) - end-users can access the asset for a set period at a cost.
Purchase Offer (EST) details include:
| Field name | Details |
|---|---|
| Label | The name of the offer. |
| Users (mandatory) | Defaults to any user. Alternatively, select from your existing user groups, e.g., premium, standard, visitor, etc. |
| Segmentation Tags | Target various groups of users by selecting existing segmentation tags. |
| Item Type (mandatory) | Select from: channel, episode, movie, program, or season. |
| Play Rules (mandatory) | Select either; 2d play, 50 playcount, or default play rule. |
| Delivery Type (mandatory) | This field is not displayed for the type channel. Select from: download, stream, or stream or download. |
| File Type (mandatory) | This field is not displayed for the type channel. Select a file format, for example: 4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD. |
| Price (mandatory) | Select a predefined asset cost to purchase. If the item type season is selected, specify a total price or a price based on the number of episodes. |
| Revenue Share | Select either % of revenue and specify the percentage. Alternatively, select enter amount and set the cost. |
| Start date and or end date (relative or absolute) | Set offer activation/deactivation dates; these can be scheduled for a future date. Learn more about dates below. |
| Offset (relative dates only) | Add offsets of time to relative dates by specifying weeks, days, hours, and minutes. |
Rental Offer (DTR) details include:
| Field name | Details |
|---|---|
| Label | The name of the offer. |
| Users (mandatory) | Defaults to any user. Alternatively, select from your existing user groups, e.g., premium, standard, or visitor. |
| Segmentation Tags | Target various groups of users by selecting existing segmentation tags. |
| Item Type (mandatory) | Select from: channel, episode, movie, program, or season. |
| Play Rules (mandatory) | Select either; 2d play, 50 playcount, or Default Play Rule. |
| Rental Duration (mandatory) | Specify the number of days the asset is rentable. |
| Delivery Type (mandatory) | This field is not displayed for the asset type channel. Select from: download, stream, or stream or download. |
| File Type (mandatory) | Select a file format, for example; 4K, 1080p, 720p, or SD. |
| Price (mandatory) | Select a predefined asset cost to rent. If the asset type season is selected, specify a total price or a price based on the number of episodes. |
| Revenue Share | Select either % of revenue and specify the percentage; alternatively, select enter amount and set the amount. |
| Start date and or end date (relative or absolute) | Set offer activation/deactivation dates; these can be scheduled for a future date. For further information on dates, see below. |
| Offset Date (relative dates only) | Add offsets of time to relative dates by specifying weeks, days, hours, and minutes. |
How dates work on offers
- A relative date (used by offers) is a period of time relative to the current date or another specified date, such as the date of ingestion. Add offsets of time to the relative date by weeks, days, hours, and minutes. For example, if the offer applies to a relative date of the deal start, with an offset of +2 days, this means the offer is active two days after the deal start date. If the deal start date is changed, the relative offer date is updated accordingly.
- An absolute date (used by deals and offers) is a fixed date and time, independent of any other set dates in the system.
Offer states
In addition to the applied offer template and the offer type, offers are also defined by their state:
|
Offer State |
Description |
|---|---|
| Active | These offers are valid and are presently active on your apps. |
| Suspended | These offers are not visible on your apps; un-suspend offers to activate. |
| Awaiting Approval | Operator approval is required before assets attached to these offers display on your apps. |
| Expired | The availability end date has passed. The offered content will no longer be available. |
| Not Active | New offers may have been added to a deal, or existing offers have been edited. You must re-instantiate the offer to change its status from not active to active. |
Viewing asset offers
When you are viewing an offerable asset in Presentation Manager, selecting the Offers tab displays the offer schedule. Hover over an offer in the schedule to see additional information. The display fields at the top allow you to filter by date, user, ownership type, or file type, and to show/hide expired offers.
Today is indicated as the default reference date. If you want to view the schedule with a different reference date, use the date selector to specify an alternative date. The offer timeline - from the offer start to offer end - is shown with set reference points (e.g. at -7 days, +7 days, +1 month, and +6 months) from the reference date.
Note: By default, expired offers are hidden. To see them, select the expired offers checkbox.
Offer schedule key:
Where more than one offer exists for the same resolution and purchase type, the cheapest one is displayed in the app and is shown in the offer schedule with a bolded title and full-color line. The remaining offers with the same resolution and purchase type display regular type titles and dimmed lines.
In the example above, the yellow bars indicate the two offers available on subscription and in HD. The one that's displayed in the app appears vivid and in bold. The other, seen below it, is dimmed.
View deal and active offers
Below the offer schedule is the Offers section. Clicking on the deal link here takes you to deal details, whereas selecting the active tab displays the asset's inherited active offers.
Note: You may see a suspended tab if you've manually suspended an offer, or due to automatic validation logic on the asset, e.g., missing video files.
With the active tab selected, select an offer to:
- Edit offer details - please note that the deal is automatically updated when you save your changes. This impacts all assets under the selected offer.
- Suspend offer - revokes visibility of assets under this offer.
- Duplicate as custom offer - this creates a new custom offer for the selected asset only.
Re-instantiating offers
A deal can contain multiple offers, all of which must respect the deal period (i.e., the duration of the deal). Therefore, when you make changes to existing offers or add new offers to a deal, you must re-instantiate (refresh) them to update the deal to include the offer changes.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Update the offers with your changes (on deals, assets, or global offers).
- Trigger the re-instantiate offers action of the asset (to refresh asset offers).
- Republish the asset (publishing uses the updated asset offers snapshot).