Essential standards for advertisements in Connected TVs identified by IAB Tech Lab

In August 2025, the IAB Tech Lab hosted the CTV Ad Ops Workshop in NYC, bringing together industry experts to address critical technical barriers preventing connected TV advertising from reaching its full programmatic potential.

The event, which featured sessions facilitated by Katie Stroud, Senior Product Manager at IAB Tech Lab, aimed to identify standardization gaps across advanced ad formats, live event delivery, and creative tracking systems.

One of the key barriers identified was the lack of standardized advanced ad formats. Shailley Singh, Executive Vice President of IAB Tech Lab, presented the Ad Format Hero initiative, which aims to establish broadly accepted specifications for CTV-focused ad executions.

Another challenge discussed was the absence of a universal conversion API standard. Industry experts agreed that a CAPI standard for TV would be crucial in providing publishers with the insights needed to optimize inventory and measure campaign effectiveness.

Creative ID framework adoption challenges and inadequate metadata and taxonomy systems were also identified as barriers. Metadata and taxonomy improvements were deemed necessary for effective inventory management.

The complexity in CTV inventory right of sale and the programmatic ecosystem's requirement for explicit ad revenue splits at ad placement time were other issues addressed.

The workshop also featured a dedicated panel titled "The VAST Question," exploring the history and adoption challenges of VAST standards.

The LEAP initiative, introduced by Hillary Slattery, Senior Director of Programmatic Product at IAB Tech Lab, was presented as a solution for live programming ad-serving challenges. The initiative incorporates several technical components, including the Concurrent Streams API and the Forecasting API.

Ads.txt, App-ads.txt, and the supply chain object provide transparency into authorized inventory sellers, but platform interpretation of these complex relationships can lead to unexpected outcomes, especially for resellers.

Complex live event advertising requirements and the right of sale for CTV inventory being distributed across multiple parties created uncertainty over true ad inventory ownership.

The IAB Tech Lab encouraged stakeholders to participate in ongoing initiatives to ensure solutions are developed with operational realities in mind. Additional guidance was considered helpful for addressing the complexities and clarifying operational procedures across the CTV supply chain.

Industry experts continue to use outdated or inadequate taxonomies for CTV advertising, despite mapping releases to facilitate migration to more robust versions.

Companies including Roku, Samsung Ads, Xandr, The Trade Desk, and SpotX collaborated to address these technical challenges in programmatic Connected TV advertising and push standardization of ad formats, live event streaming, and creative tracking systems.

Operations professionals from major streaming platforms such as Paramount, NBC, DirectTV, Samsung, Fox, Disney, and Yahoo participated. The workshop also welcomed experts from Meta, Fox, Videostorm, AD-ID, GumGum, and Google.

With the CTV's share of media budgets projected to double from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2025, these technical improvements are critical for campaign efficiency and effectiveness.

Essential standards for advertisements in Connected TVs identified by IAB Tech Lab