NPR Sponsorship Service

Name: NPR Sponsorship Service API
Brand: NPR Sponsorship Service
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMarketingAdvertisingoauth22 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Request VAST sponsorship audio units from NPR and record playback tracking events for non-NPR-One client applications.

Connect the NPR Sponsorship Service to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NPR Sponsorship Service, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with NPR Sponsorship Service API.

Request a VAST sponsorship audio unit for insertion into a non-NPR-One audio player

Record VAST tracking events such as start, midpoint, and complete for a sponsorship unit

Authenticate as a sponsorship-enabled NPR client via OAuth 2.0

Operate sponsorship outside the NPR One client surface using the same backend logic

GET STARTED

Start building with NPR Sponsorship Service API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use for: I need to request an NPR sponsorship unit for a third-party audio player, Record a VAST start event for a sponsorship that just played, Get a midroll sponsorship audio unit for an NPR show in a partner app, Submit playback completion tracking for an NPR sponsorship

Not supported: Does not handle editorial audio recommendations, listener profile, or NPR One client sponsorship — use for VAST sponsorship inventory and tracking in non-NPR-One partner applications only.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for NPR Sponsorship Service, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for NPR Sponsorship Service, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The NPR Sponsorship Service serves VAST-formatted sponsorship units to non-NPR-One client applications, allowing third-party players to request and report on NPR sponsorship audio. The two endpoints cover requesting a VAST sponsorship unit and recording playback tracking events. Authentication is OAuth 2.0 with credentials provisioned by NPR.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use NPR Sponsorship Service API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Sponsorship in Partner Audio Apps

Partner apps that surface NPR audio outside the NPR One client request a VAST sponsorship unit before or between segments via GET /v2/ads. The response is a VAST XML payload that the partner audio player can render directly, ensuring NPR sponsorship inventory is delivered consistently across third-party surfaces.

Call GET /v2/ads with the partner application credentials before each NPR audio segment, parse the returned VAST XML, and play the sponsorship audio.

VAST Tracking and Reporting

POST /v2/ads records VAST tracking events such as start, midpoint, and complete back to NPR. This closes the loop on sponsorship reporting, allowing NPR to attribute impressions and completions to the correct partner application and to ensure pacing across the sponsorship inventory.

On a complete event from the audio player, call POST /v2/ads with the VAST tracking payload to record the impression.

Agent-Driven Sponsorship Insertion

An audio agent assembling a partner experience uses Jentic to fetch the next sponsorship unit before each segment and report tracking events afterwards. Because Jentic exposes both /v2/ads operations as discrete tools, the agent does not need to maintain VAST request logic or hand-rolled OAuth state.

Search Jentic for 'request npr sponsorship unit', execute GET /v2/ads, play the returned audio, then call POST /v2/ads with the tracking payload.

Key Endpoints

2 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for npr sponsorship service, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/v2/ads

Request a VAST sponsorship unit

POST

/v2/ads

Record VAST tracking data for a sponsorship unit

GET

/v2/ads

Request a VAST sponsorship unit

POST

/v2/ads

Record VAST tracking data for a sponsorship unit

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

OAuth 2.0 partner credentials are stored in the Jentic vault and only injected at request time. The agent context never holds the raw partner token, which is important because sponsorship inventory tracking is tied to the partner identity.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic with intents like 'request an npr sponsorship unit' and Jentic returns the GET /v2/ads operation with its input schema. With only two endpoints, selection is unambiguous.

Time to first call

Direct NPR Sponsorship integration: 1-2 days plus VAST player wiring. Through Jentic: under an hour once the partner token is in the vault — search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

NPR Authorization Service

Issues the OAuth 2.0 tokens that the Sponsorship Service requires.

Call Authorization first to obtain a token before requesting sponsorship inventory.

Complementary

NPR Listening Service

Pairs sponsorship insertion with the editorial audio queue from Listening.

Use Listening to fetch the audio segments around which sponsorship will be inserted.

Alternative

YouTube Data API

Different content surface with its own ad request and tracking flow.

Choose YouTube when the inventory is video and unrelated to NPR public-radio sponsorship.

FAQs

Specific to using NPR Sponsorship Service API through Jentic.

Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for NPR Sponsorship Service?

NPR does not publish an OpenAPI specification for the Sponsorship Service. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call NPR Sponsorship Service via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What authentication does the NPR Sponsorship Service use?

The Sponsorship Service uses OAuth 2.0 with partner-scoped credentials provisioned by NPR for non-NPR-One client applications. Jentic stores the access token in its encrypted vault and injects it into the Authorization header on each /v2/ads call.

Can I get a midroll sponsorship for a partner audio app with this service?

Yes. GET /v2/ads returns a VAST sponsorship unit ready for the partner audio player to render. Pair this with POST /v2/ads to record start, midpoint, and complete tracking events so NPR can attribute the impression.

How do I record a sponsorship completion event through Jentic?

Search Jentic with 'record vast tracking npr', load POST /v2/ads, and execute it with the tracking payload from the audio player. NPR's reporting pipeline registers the impression against the partner application.

Is the NPR Sponsorship Service intended for NPR One client apps?

No. NPR One client apps receive sponsorship through the main listening pipeline. This service is specifically for non-NPR-One client applications that need VAST sponsorship inventory and tracking, which is why it is documented at /guide/app-experience/sponsorship/.