Nielsen DCR destination initial loadMetadata missing some properties

[bdchin]

We are testing the Nielsen DCR destination for video tracking.

Nielsen's test engineer reports that the "loadMetadata" request triggered by a "Video Playback Started" event sends different values for some required parameters even though the correct data points are sent as custom properties on the track call: "airdate," "program" and "length."

Curiously, all three of those parameters are included on a second "loadMetadata" request triggered by "Video Content Started," whose payload includes the same custom properties.

The custom properties on "Video Playback Started" and "Video Content Started" include:

    "airdate": "2022-01-27T18:29:43.000Z",
    "campaign_id": "",
    "category": "Video",
    "close_caption": null,
    "content": {
      "airdate": "",
      "content_asset_id": "7399401",
      "full_episode": false,
      "load_type": "dynamic",
      "program": "default",
      "title": "Baby it’s cold outside but no worries, West County Center keeps you warm and looking good"
    },
    "content_asset_id": "7399401",
    "content_id": "nxstrib-8-article-231122",
    "content_title": "Lead VOD",
    "content_type": "article",
    "framerate": "30",
    "full_episode": false,
    "full_screen": false,
    "ga_hit_type": "event",
    "homepage_title": "",
    "image_count": 0,
    "keywords": "",
    "label": "Baby it’s cold outside but no worries, West County Center keeps you warm and looking good",
    "livestream": false,
    "load_type": "dynamic",
    "local_page_id": "nxstrib-8-article-231122",
    "modification_timestamp_local": "2022-03-01T13:52:58-06:00",
    "module_count": null,
    "original_source": "",
    "page_type": "article",
    "page_visibility": "visible",
    "paragraph_count": 3,
    "percentage_played": 0,
    "platform": "MacOS Web",
    "position": 0,
    "post_id": "",
    "primary_category": "OVP Test Category",
    "primary_category_id": 423536033,
    "program": "Studio STL",
    "quartile_complete": "milestone 0%",
    "search": "?nol_sdkdebug=DEBUG",
    "sound": 100,
    "title": "Baby it’s cold outside but no worries, West County Center keeps you warm and looking good",
    "total_length": "265",
    "type": "mid-roll",
    "unique_pageview_id": "4d6761f7-5a9f-4a35-8bf4-622ec3fcd2b4",
    "us_privacy_string": "1Y--",
    "video_ad_asset_id": "7399401",
    "video_ad_enabled": true,
    "video_ad_title": "",
    "video_ad_total_length": 0,
    "video_count": 2,
    "video_initiation_type": "auto",
    "video_player": "VideoJS",
    "video_priority": false
  }

(Note that some, non-video-specific properties have been removed for the sake of clarity.

For the "Video Playback Started" event, the Nielsen debugger indicates that this metadata is collected and sent:

pli=16479240967709712&ggpm={"evtInfo":{"eventType":"loadMetadata","param1":{"type":"content","assetid":"7399401","program":"default","title":"Baby it’s cold outside but no worries, West County Center keeps you warm and looking good","isfullepisode":"n","mediaURL":"https://stage.nnnn.com/ootest/lead-vod/?nol_sdkdebug=DEBUG","airdate":"20220322 04:41:43","adloadtype":"2","hasAds":"0","length":0}},"id":"16479240967709712"} - (1647924103)

Note that "airdate" is set to the current timestamp when the request was sent, and "length" is 0. The payload on "Video Playback Started" has different values for both.

(Note: "mediaURL" has been obfuscated in these examples.)

The "Video Content Started" event triggers another loadMetadata event that translates those properties correctly:

pli=16479240967709712&ggpm={"evtInfo":{"eventType":"loadMetadata","param1":{"type":"content","assetid":"7399401","program":"Studio STL","title":"Baby it’s cold outside but no worries, West County Center keeps you warm and looking good","isfullepisode":"n","mediaURL":"https://stage.nnnn.com/ootest/lead-vod/?nol_sdkdebug=DEBUG","airdate":"20220127 06:29:43","adloadtype":"2","hasAds":"0","length":"265"}},"id":"16479240967709712"} - (1647924118)

Please contact me directly for a URL on which the issue can be produced. The video player is under development and is not available in a production environment.

[bdchin]

We've found a solution this issue internally.