Two standards moves this week point the same direction: the industry is trying to give video a common language and make new streaming formats buyable programmatically. First, the IAB and IAB Tech Lab released the “Redefining Media Types” (RMT) Standard for public comment, defining eight video media types — CTV, online video, streaming, social video, video podcasts, retail media video, gaming video, and digital-out-of-home. Second, IAB Tech Lab launched an initiative to standardize the programmatic signals for emerging streaming formats — pause ads, in-scene ads, and smart-TV home-screen placements.
01What the RMT standard actually does
RMT uses a two-layer framework: a strategic planning layer that sorts video into four macro buckets by viewing experience, and an operational execution layer that describes inventory at the impression level. The goal, per IAB’s Jamie Finstein, is to give “buyers, sellers, publishers and platforms a shared, future-proof language” that holds up across planning, execution, and measurement. Public comment runs through August 8, 2026 — a real window for publishers to shape definitions they’ll be selling and measuring against for years.
The streaming-signals work tackles a different but related gap. Formats like pause ads get plenty of hype but little adoption, because there’s no standardized way to buy them programmatically across streamers — most run as one-off direct deals today. Standardize the signals, and agencies could buy those formats at scale, unlocking programmatic demand for inventory that’s currently stuck in manual sales.
02Why this matters
Standards feel like homework until you realize they set the terms of trade for your inventory.
| Definitions decide your demand | How your video is classified — "CTV" vs. "online video" vs. "social video" — affects which budgets can find it, how it's priced, and how it's measured. If the taxonomy misfits your inventory, you lose demand you should have won. That's why the comment window matters. |
|---|---|
| Standardized signals unlock new money | If pause ads, in-scene ads, and home-screen placements become programmatically buyable, publishers and streamers with that inventory get access to programmatic-first budgets they can't reach today. Standardization turns a niche direct-sold format into a scalable line item. |
| A common language cuts friction | Shared definitions reduce the discrepancies, reconciliation fights, and measurement mismatches that quietly tax every video deal. Cleaner plumbing means more of the dollar reaches you. |
Standards bodies rarely make headlines, but this week they're doing something consequential: rewriting how all of digital video is defined, bought, and measured.
03What publishers should do
04What marketers should do
05The bottom line
Standards bodies rarely make headlines, but this week they’re doing something consequential: rewriting how all of digital video is defined, bought, and measured. For publishers, that’s both a risk (misclassified inventory loses demand) and an opportunity (standardized signals unlock new programmatic money). The comment window closes August 8 — the rare moment when a publisher’s voice can change the rules instead of just living with them.