When a mobile video is “streamed” to a handset it starts playing when the first bits of the video stream are received. The technologies used allow ad servers to track the viewing of a video ad placed at the beginning, middle or end of a mobile video. Commonly used video streaming ad servers would be able to provide advertisers with detailed statistics on how many sections or what percentage of a particular video ad has been viewed by a unique individual. The most popular underlying technology is RTSP. Due to the nature of the underlying technologies used, the quality of the received video differs based on varying network conditions. It should also be noted that since the video file is usually not stored on the receiving handset, this methodology raises less copyright concerns.
