To ensure your advert blocks always play regardless of timing issues, you need to mark them as Protected items. Protected items cannot be dropped by Fixed Time Markers or affected by the Auto Adjust feature, which means they'll always play even when you're running behind schedule.

When adding an advert block to your clock via Manage > Clocks, make sure to tick the Protected checkbox for the advert block item. This will ensure that when the clock is scheduled into your playout log, the advert block will inherit the protected status.

You can also mark existing advert blocks as protected directly in the playout log. Go to Manage > Playout Log, find your advert block items, and tick the Protected checkbox for each one. Protected items will display with a shield icon on the main interface to indicate their status.

The protected status is particularly important when using Fixed Time Markers or the Auto Adjust feature. Normally, these features might drop items that would cause the schedule to overrun, but protected items are specifically exempted from this behaviour. This makes the protected flag essential for commercial content that must be played for contractual or revenue reasons.

If you're using automated scheduling, consider setting up your clocks so that advert blocks are always positioned before Fixed Time Markers rather than after them. This way, even if previous content runs long, the advert block will still have time to play before the hard timing constraint kicks in.

Remember that whilst protected items won't be automatically dropped, they can still be manually deleted if needed. However, you'll need to use the Ellipsis button (...) to access the context menu rather than the standard delete button, providing an extra layer of protection against accidental deletion.