IAB Sets New Broadband Guidelines

A broadband video commercial should not be counted as displayed until its buffered stream has begun. That was the final verdict announced Monday by the IAB and its Broadband Committee and Measurement Task Force on new Broadband Video Commercial Measurement Guidelines.

"A valid broadband ad impression may only be counted when an ad counter (logging server) receives and responds to an HTTP request for a tracking asset from a client," the new guideline states. That means measurement should not occur when the buffer is initiated; rather, "measurement should occur when the ad itself begins to appear on the user's browser, closest to the opportunity to see."

The IAB defines a broadband video commercial as a commercial that may appear before, during, and after content including streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content in a player environment. This definition includes commercials that appear in live, archived, and downloadable streaming content.

"As with all IAB measurement guidelines, these guidelines further establish consistency for the marketplace," Greg Stuart, IAB's CEO, said in a statement.

Publishers and media buyers were generally supportive of the IAB's new broadband guidelines when they were floated in March. Some agency executives, however, complained that they didn't go far enough. Christine Peterson, engagement specialist and media supervisor at Carat Fusion, was one of them.

Last year, Peterson and other executives floated the idea that the cost of online ads should be pro-rated; instead of paying a flat cost-per-impression fee regardless of whether viewers watched 5 seconds or 30, they wanted to just pay a fraction of the price if viewers shut off the ad after only a few seconds. For now, any notion of pro-rating payment obligations between media buyers and publishers is being overlooked.

Some in the industry saw the guidelines as boding particularly well for the future of online advertising. "This foreshadows the Internet as a global ad force," said Klipmart CEO Chris Young. "There's no other comparable ad measurement in TV that crosses International boarders, and will allow for truly global campaigns several years from now."

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