MediaTailor NEW_CREATIVE ad skipping troubleshooting
When ads are skipped with the NEW_CREATIVE reason, AWS Elemental MediaTailor encountered
an ad that requires transcoding before insertion. This troubleshooting guide explains
the causes and provides step-by-step resolution procedures.
What causes NEW_CREATIVE skipping
MediaTailor transcodes ads based on three key factors: creative ID, AWS Account ID, and transcode variant set (the playback renditions for the underlying content stream). When any part of the creative ID or transcode variant set differs, MediaTailor recognizes the ad as a new variant that requires transcoding.
Bitrate changes
Bitrate changes can cause NEW_CREATIVE skipping when the bitrate doesn't match after rounding to the nearest 8,000 bits. This commonly occurs in the following situations:
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The underlying content stream changes the primary manifest
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New sessions are created with different variants than existing sessions
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Content stream bitrates are inconsistent across playback sessions
Harvest job bandwidth variance
For harvest jobs, MediaTailor uses a 15% bandwidth variance threshold when matching ads to content streams. If there is a difference of 15% or more between the bandwidth of the live stream and the bandwidth of the harvested HLS file, the ad will be transcoded again. This can result in NEW_CREATIVE skipping during the transcoding process.
This behavior commonly occurs when:
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The same pre-transcoded ads are used for both live streaming and VOD content
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The harvested content has different encoding parameters than the original live stream
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Bandwidth differences exceed the 15% threshold between live and harvested content
Creative ID conflicts
When MediaTailor encounters a different creative ID for a media file that was already transcoded, the following sequence occurs:
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The ad is skipped with reason NEW_CREATIVE
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This leads to an unnecessary transcoding attempt
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The creative is marked as DUPLICATE_TRANSCODE or COPY_DEDUP
Note
MediaTailor does not expire or delete transcoded ads. We store them in a MediaTailor-owned S3 bucket indefinitely.
Resolution steps
To resolve NEW_CREATIVE ad skipping issues:
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Verify that your ad decision server returns consistent creative IDs for the same ad content.
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Check that your content stream maintains consistent bitrates and variant sets.
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Consider implementing ad prefetching to ensure ads are transcoded before playback. For more information, see Prefetching ads.
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For persistent issues, contact AWS Support
for additional troubleshooting assistance.
Monitoring NEW_CREATIVE patterns
Use this CloudWatch Logs Insights query to analyze patterns in NEW_CREATIVE ad skipping:
fields @timestamp, sessionId, creativeId, skipReason, MediaFileSourceUrl | filter skipReason = "NEW_CREATIVE" | stats count() by creativeId, MediaFileSourceUrl | sort count desc | limit 50
