The clock is running on one of the more practically useful standards updates of the year. IAB Tech Lab’s proposed new OpenRTB attributes for live content, plus a new substitution macro, are open for public comment through May 28, 2026 — meaning the window closes this coming week. Publishers and SSPs that want input should weigh in now.
01What the update does
Developed through IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Supply Chain Commit Group, the proposal adds standardized bidstream signals that:
- Describe live content — explicitly flagging whether content is a livestream, real-time, or a first broadcast, so buyers can identify and value live inventory in the bid request.
- Add a substitution macro that lets supply and demand platforms communicate pricing and discounting more explicitly within the bidstream.
It sits inside IAB Tech Lab’s broader agentic roadmap (released in January 2026), which aims to extend established standards into the agentic execution layer with reference buyer/seller agents, a neutral MCP reference server, agent profiles, and Protocol Buffers/gRPC mappings.
02Why this matters
Live content — sports, news, events, live streaming — is the most valuable and fastest-growing premium inventory in CTV and digital video, and until now the bidstream has been bad at describing it. A buyer often couldn’t tell from the bid request whether an impression was a live NFL stream or a library rerun, which means live inventory hasn’t been priced for what it is.
| Better live signals mean better live monetization | If buyers can reliably identify live inventory in the bidstream, publishers can command the premium that live attention deserves — programmatically, at scale, not just in direct deals. |
|---|---|
| The substitution macro improves pricing transparency | Clearer communication of pricing and discounting between SSPs and DSPs reduces guesswork and disputes in how deals are valued. |
| This is the standards layer the agentic era runs on | As agents take over buying and selling, machine-readable signals like these are what they'll act on. Inventory described by rich, standardized attributes is inventory agents can find and value; inventory that isn't gets skipped. |
IAB Tech Lab's live-content signals are exactly the kind of unglamorous standards work that quietly decides who captures premium revenue.
03What publishers should do this quarter
04What marketers should do
05The bottom line
IAB Tech Lab’s live-content signals are exactly the kind of unglamorous standards work that quietly decides who captures premium revenue. Live inventory you can’t describe in the bidstream is live inventory you can’t fully monetize programmatically — and the deadline to shape the standard is days away. Comment now; implement early.