There are two tiers of content available for play on a station; Paid Content and Unpaid Content.  The template gives the station control over how the Injector “should” prioritize the items that need to play.

When the station goes to break, the station template will dictate what is played in the stop set. Each numbered column is essentially a placeholder, or potential placeholder, in the break. So, column one is what will be played in the first slot of the stop set.  Checked items from column two will dictate that an item from one of the selected categories of column two will play second.  Column three corresponds to the third item that will be played in the break.  Column four, forth played item.  And so forth.  Multiple checkmarks in the same numbered column give the Injector “choices” of different material that can be played in that potential slot of a stop set.  The Injector will stay in the stop set, moving from one column to the next after each element has finished playing.  The Injector will keep moving through columns until the Trigger that fired the stop set expires or until the station Automation system sends new, Go Live data.  If 10 or more items need to be played in one consecutive stop set, then the station will stay in column 10 and it will continue to repeat column 10 until the it is told to go back to Live. 

Essentially, the system will always look to play the highest ranked item from the highest ranked category that is checked in a column of the template.  So, when the Injector gets a matched cart trigger from the station automation system, it will look to play the highest ranked item from the highest ranked category and it will work its way down through the categories looking for the highest ranked item to play.

Paid Content categories are ranked.  The categories for unpaid content ARE NOT RANKED – they are all equal.

Within the Paid Content Tier there are four categories of content and they are ranked as follows: Paid Spot (CPM) is the highest ranked category. Items put into inventory in the Paid Spot CPM category will ALWAYS  play first if this category is selected in the template and there are items in this category available to be played.  Paid Spot (PI) is the second highest ranked category.  Followed by Target Spot.  Followed by Ad Wire items.  Now, Ad Wire does not have a category.  Ad Wire items are put into wither Paid Spot CPM or Paid Spot PI – but the system treats Ad Wire items differently than locally trafficked, locally scheduled content.  Ad Wire items have a special “flag” in the system and they are always ranked fourth.  So, while there isn’t a category in the template for Ad Wire, they are treated as lower priority than local paid content and target spot content, regardless of their specified category.

If the system has gone through all Paid Content categories and still has not found an item to play, it will drop down into the Unpaid Content Tier – assuming of course that categories in the Unpaid content tier have been selected in that column of the template.  All of the Fill categories in the template ( Unpaid Spots, Promos, Songs, Bumpers, Liners, Short Shows, etc are in the Unpaid Content Tier).   These categories ARE NOT RANKED and they are all treated evenly.  So, if the Injector, having run through the Paid Content Tier is now in the Unpaid Tier and looking for something to play.  It will look in all of the checked categories and it will pull and play the highest ranked item from any of the selected Fill categories.  Availability of play depends on multiple factors which include frequency capping, inventory levels, OTI metering and so forth.

If a column is left with nothing selected in the Template for the place of a stop set, or if a category is selected but there is not enough inventory to allow an item to play, the Injector will play Silence.

So, make sure that there are always enough categories checked in each column of the template and equally important, make sure that there are always enough items in each selected category of the template.  We always recommend a bare minimum of at least 15 items for any category that is selected in the station template (even if it’s only selected in one slot of the template).

One Note:  IF you are accessing your station Template, and there are columns that are Grayed out (unchangeable), that means that the Template has been locked by a Super Admin (Usually on the Corporate level).  You would need to be a Super Admin to be able to make changes to a locked out Template.  You can request that a Super Admin at your group make the needed changes for you, or you can request that they upgrade your account so that you can make the requested alterations.

Should you have any questions, or need any further assistance whatsoever, please reach out to our support staff through the Submit Ticket link at the top of the page.