With the surge of growth in Connected Television (CTV) new formats have surfaced specific to the channel. In 2024, Tech Lab launched Ad Format Hero, to gain market insights on the most widely adopted formats, ripe for standardization. In 2025, the taskforce assembled to define the user experience for these formats, and will continue work in determining how they are bought and sold in the programmatic ecosystem.
Key updates to the previous guidance around CTV include:
The Guidance specification is in Public Comment until January 31, 2026
A pause ad is a TV ad experience initiated when the viewer uses a remote to pause the content being watched.
Screen Saver Ads are similar to Pause Ads but where Pause Ads are viewer-initiated ad experiences, Screen Saver Ads are OS/App initiated ad experiences.
A menu ad is an ad unit that appears within the user interface (UI) of the TV or streaming platform. These are typically ads integrated into the home screen or in the content navigation menu, rather than during video playback.
In Scene Ads are a form of advertising that integrates branded elements directly within the content itself, rather than appearing as separate pre-roll, mid-roll, overlay, or display formats. In Scene Advertising is composited into the video content and blends the brand naturally into the scene, environment, or storyline, ensuring contextual relevance and viewer immersion without interrupting the user experience. In-scene ads typically consist of product placements or virtual out of home insertions. At this time, the standardization focuses on the out of home insertions.
Overlay Ads over content are non-linear ads occurring during program content and outside of the traditional ad break. The ad format places ad creatives over top of the program content, often as a banner or picture in picture execution. Overlay Ads may have user interaction with the remote control or scanning a QR code that is part of the ad creative.
For Overlay Ads there are 2 variations defined in the guidance:
Ads Alongside or Adjacent to Content, also known as L-Shape Ads & Double Box, are ads that occur during program content and outside of the traditional ad break. The program content is resized to allow for placement of an ad on the screen. In a squeezeback, none of the content is covered by the ad, instead it shares screen space with the ad. This is the major distinction between squeezeback and overlay.
Squeeze Back Ads also have additional variations defined in the guidance.