Pause for thought as IAB Tech Lab tunes up the rules of CTV ads

MUMBAI: If connected TV has been improvising, IAB Tech Lab is finally handing it the sheet music. The global digital advertising standards body has unveiled a new CTV Ad Portfolio alongside a major update to its Guide to Programmatic CTV, bringing long-awaited order to one of the fastest-growing and messiest corners of digital advertising.

At the heart of the update is a clear definition of six core CTV ad formats, Pause, Menu, Screensaver, In-Scene, Squeeze backs and Overlays. These formats were distilled from more than 100 real-world submissions gathered through the Ad Format Hero initiative, an industry-wide call aimed at capturing how CTV advertising is actually being executed today, not just how it looks on slides.

Alongside the portfolio, IAB Tech Lab has refreshed its programmatic guidance to show how these formats can be bought and sold more consistently. The update includes expanded OpenRTB support for Pause and Menu ads, the two formats prioritised by the industry working group making them easier to transact at scale. Both documents are now open for public comment until January 31, 2026.

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur said the move responds directly to market pressure. With the CTV ecosystem growing at speed, publishers, buyers and platforms have been calling for a shared vocabulary and cleaner pipes. The new portfolio, he noted, is designed to give the industry a common language and reduce friction in how emerging formats are traded.

The timing is hardly accidental. Streaming and CTV now account for the majority of TV viewing in the US, and advertisers are looking beyond traditional ad pods for incremental, high-impact inventory. Formats like Pause and Menu ads promise exactly that placements that appear when viewers are already engaged, without interrupting the content itself.

By standardising definitions and required attributes, IAB Tech Lab is also trying to fix the plumbing. Inconsistent implementations have led to creatives not rendering correctly, repeated rework for creative teams and unnecessary operational strain across platforms. The new framework aims to cut duplication, reduce errors and make advanced CTV formats easier to scale across devices and publishers.

The update mirrors what the original Digital Ad Portfolio did for display advertising in OpenRTB, less guesswork, more alignment. Industry response suggests that clarity is welcome. Executives from Gumgum, Disney and NBCUniversal have all pointed to interoperability and consistency as critical to unlocking the next phase of CTV growth especially as advertisers demand premium environments that are easier to access and measure.

Taken together, the CTV Ad Portfolio and the updated Programmatic CTV guide signal a shift from experimentation to execution. For an industry that has spent years pausing, buffering and squeezing ads into place, IAB Tech Lab’s latest move is an attempt to make connected TV finally play smoothly.