On connected TV, an ad break is called a pod: several ad slots that play back to back, as in a TV commercial break. OpenRTB 2.6 added the pod fields podid, podseq, poddur, maxseq, mincpmpersec, slotinpod and rqddurs to the Video and Audio objects. A buyer who reads those fields knows what is on offer before bidding.

What are structured, dynamic and hybrid pods?

The implementation notes define three shapes:

  • Structured: the seller fixes the number of slots, their positions and their durations in advance.
  • Dynamic: the seller sets only the total duration and the maximum number of ads. The number and length of ads stay open, which gives bidders room to choose. The fields poddur and maxseq carry those limits.
  • Hybrid: a mix of fixed slots and a dynamic portion.

Two more points from the same notes. The seller builds the final pod: if you submit N bids, the seller may pick anywhere from 0 to N of them and may mix in bids from other buyers. And for the dynamic part, the price floor is mincpmpersec, a minimum CPM per second. Buyers should look for it first and fall back to bidfloor.

Two other fields guard against waste. The spec says rqddurs lists exact creative lengths, aimed at live TV where a mismatched length leaves dead air, and that slotinpod means the seller can guarantee delivery in that slot position.

Where does VAST fit?

VAST, the Video Ad Serving Template, is a common XML schema that carries ad metadata from the ad server to the video player. In programmatic, the same guide says the player’s ad request is most often translated into an OpenRTB request with a video object, and the winning bid includes a VAST document describing the ad. It also notes that a mezzanine file, the raw high-resolution video, lets a publisher render the best version for each screen.

What does the ssai field tell a buyer?

With server-side ad insertion (SSAI), ads are stitched into the stream before it reaches the TV. That changes who retrieves the creative and who fires the tracking pixels, which matters for measurement. The imp.ssai field records it with four values:

  • 0: status unknown.
  • 1: all client-side.
  • 2: assets stitched server-side, tracking pixels fired client-side.
  • 3: all server-side.

A 0 means the seller did not say, which is a gap, not a guarantee of either path. Ask your verification vendor how it handles each value.

How do you check that a CTV app is authorized?

CTV inventory can be spoofed, so the IAB Tech Lab CTV Programmatic Guide points buyers to app-ads.txt. The buyer takes the bundle ID in the bid request, finds the developer URL in the app store listing, fetches the app-ads.txt file there, and checks that the seller ID is listed. The guide also covers device attestation, and it groups its standards into seven areas, from ad opportunity and delivery to ad fraud and brand suitability.

In CTV, the guide notes that multiple entities can hold sales rights over the same ad slots. ads.txt 1.0.3, final in March 2021, added the INVENTORYPARTNERDOMAIN directive for that case, and crawlers follow only one hop to the partner’s file. In OpenRTB 2.6-202211, the inventorypartnerdomain field moved from ext into the Site and App objects.

What are the newer CTV ad format signals?

IAB Tech Lab’s CTV ad format signaling covers six formats: Pause Ads, Menu/Home Screen Ads, Overlay Ads, Screensaver Ads, In Scene and Squeezebacks. It adds metadata fields to bid requests and responses so a seller can say exactly what the slot is. The page describes the changes as extensions of existing standards: expanded AdCOM enumerations for plcmt (the format), pos (screen position) and playbackmethod, plus a VAST change that lets NonLinearAds carry MediaFiles.

Five of the formats use the Video request object paired with NonLinear VAST delivery. Menu and home screen ads use the Native object instead, because the TV platform renders them. As of October 2, 2026, the page describes the signaling as finalized.

What does this mean for a buyer?

Omni Buy places CTV bids with OpenRTB 2.6 ad pods (structured, dynamic and hybrid) and reads the ssai signal. It also runs VAST creative checks per channel before launch. A buyer should still put three questions to each seller: which pod type is offered, what the ssai value is, and which app-ads.txt file authorizes the seller.