• by Alex Weprin , April 3, 2018

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Technology Laboratory on Tuesday released “Guidelines for Identifier for Advertising on OTT Platforms," a report focused on “recommendations on how to maintain a high-quality advertising experience within over-the-top television (OTT) environments,” providing best practices for advertisers, ad platforms, publishers and device makers.

The guidelines cover targeted advertising, as well as ad frequency and rotation, among other topics.

The guidelines suggest that in order to be compliant, every ad request must include an identifier for advertising (IFA), unless the user has opted in to limited ad tracking. An IFA must be unique, and not associated with any IP address, MAC address or hardware ID. The ad requests must also include an associated IFA type (i.e. temporary, device-generated or publisher generated), and with limit ad tracking to give consumers an opt-out mechanism.

“After linear TV, more Americans watch video content on OTT than on VOD or DVR, and the medium is skyrocketing,” says Dennis Buchheim, senior vice president/general manager of the IAB Tech Lab. “The traditional semi-persistent cookie we are accustomed to using as an identifier on browsers isn’t at play across OTT systems, so we need to deploy other types of identifiers to ensure that ad experiences are optimal for consumers. These guidelines will direct stakeholders down the path of best practices to allow OTT to grow and evolve as a significant advertising platform.”

The guidelines will be open for public comment through May 3, after which the IAB Tech Lab OTT Technical Working Group will read the feedback and release a final version.