IAB Tech Lab Announces OM SDK Support for Emerging CTV Ad Formats
IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards-setting body, today announced expanded Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) support for emerging connected TV (CTV) ad formats included in the CTV Ad Portfolio. The release enables impression measurement for Pause, Menu (also known as Homescreen), Screensaver, and Overlay Ads, extending established measurement capabilities to formats that are creating new monetization opportunities across CTV.
“CTV advertising is moving fast, and measurement has to move with it,” said Jill Wittkopp, VP of Product, IAB Tech Lab. “The idea that everything on a TV screen is automatically viewable because it is CTV just does not hold up anymore. We have new formats, new placements, and new ways for consumers to experience advertising, so the industry needs measurement that can tell us what is actually happening on that screen.”
The dollars moving into streaming make that measurement increasingly important. U.S. digital video ad spending is projected to surpass $80 billion in 2026, growing 11% year over year and nearly 20% faster than the overall ad market, while digital video will account for more than 60% of total TV and video ad spend for the first time. CTV remains one of the market’s fastest-growing channels, with IAB projecting 13.8% growth in CTV ad spend in 2026. As publishers and platforms look to build new revenue streams beyond traditional pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, formats such as Pause, Menu, Screensaver, and Overlay Ads create new opportunities to monetize the CTV screen.
These emerging formats also introduce new questions about where an ad appears and how much of the screen it occupies, beyond the traditional assumption of CTV always being viewable. Some of these new CTV Ad formats enable flexibility in how much screen real estate is used. Standardized measurement gives buyers greater confidence in what they are buying and gives sellers a stronger foundation to bring that inventory to market at scale.
“As CTV expands beyond traditional video ad formats, advertisers need consistent, independent measurement that reflects how those ads are actually experienced on screen,” said Todd Randak, General Manager, CTV at DoubleVerify. “Extending Open Measurement to emerging formats is an important step toward giving advertisers greater transparency into media quality and helping the industry build confidence as new CTV inventory scales.”
“Pause ads offer a premium canvas, and now the infrastructure needs to catch up,” said David Dworin, Chief Product Officer, FreeWheel. “Standardized bidding signals and consistent measurement help buyers understand what they’re buying and how it performs—reducing friction and building confidence to scale pause ads and future formats.”
"New CTV formats like pause and menu ads create new opportunities for advertisers, but their on-screen behavior makes them difficult to measure. OMSDK for CTV will help enable consistent, independent verification so advertisers and publishers can invest in these formats with confidence" added Gautam Babbar, Sr. Director, Product Management at IAS.
“As connected TV continues to grow and command higher CPMs, consistent and transparent measurement becomes increasingly critical. Expanding OM SDK support to emerging ad formats—including Pause, Menu, Screensaver, and Overlay Ads—is an important step,” said Ron Pinelli, SVP Digital Research and Standards Media Rating Council. “Broad adoption of OM SDK benefits both advertisers and publishers by enabling more consistent impression measurement, strengthening trust, and reducing fragmentation across proprietary measurement solutions.”
The expanded OM SDK support helps unlock the commercial potential of emerging CTV formats by giving buyers and sellers a common measurement foundation. As emerging formats like Pause and Menu Ads gain traction and move toward greater programmatic scale, publishers and platforms have an opportunity to open new revenue streams beyond the traditional commercial break and attract budgets that increasingly flow through programmatic channels. With consistent measurement in place, these emerging experiences have a clearer path from new ad format to scalable CTV inventory.
To learn more about OM SDK for CTV support for emerging CTV ad formats and how to get started with planning to implement, visit https://iabtechlab.com/omsdk
About IAB Technology Laboratory
Established in 2014, the IAB Technology Laboratory (Tech Lab) is a non-profit consortium that engages a member community globally to develop foundational technology and standards that enable growth and trust in the digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers, ad technology firms, agencies, brands, and other member companies, IAB Tech Lab focuses on solutions for brand safety and ad fraud; identity, data, and consumer privacy; cross-channel programmatic effectiveness and ad measurement; and the impact of LLMs and AI agents on advertising. Its work includes the OpenRTB real-time bidding protocol, ads.txt anti-fraud specification, Open Measurement SDK for viewability and verification, VAST video specification, Trusted Server, and the Agentic Roadmap initiative for agentic advertising. Board members and companies are listed at https://iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/tech-lab-leadership/. For more information, please visit https://iabtechlab.com.
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