Quality Criteria: Connected TV (Europe)

The following quality criteria are obligatory and serve as a guideline for the best possible monetisation of CTV inventory. The contents of the following guidelines are based on market developments over the past 24 months. The performance values are assessed by smartclip’s proprietary systems as well as well-known ad verification providers.

The concept of “premium” is based on proven performance values that significantly profit from placement within CTV environments. Infringement or violation of these guidelines could lead to exclusion from monetisation and/or a loss of revenue. Additionally, buyers evaluate the criteria individually, and smartclip conducts detailed analyses of intentional or unintentional violations of the criteria on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, complying with these guidelines can ensure the best possible revenue generation for a publisher’s inventory.

Furthermore, the below-mentioned criteria offer the opportunity to stand out amongst other competitors within the CTV segment.

Publisher Requirements

• Installation and regular maintenance of an app-ads.txt file
• Correct transmission of the consent string signal according to TCF 2.0 (EU only)
• Correct transfer of App Store URLs
• No violation of applicable law. Compliance with legal safety regulations is obligatory. 
• Invalid traffic (IVT) needs to be avoided. In the event that IVT surpasses the predefined threshold, smartclip reserves the right to deactivate the publisher. 
• Correct transmission of SupplyChain nodes according to the IAB SupplyChain Object specifications if all or parts of the inventory are not independently owned and operated

• Correct delivery of Content Objects information according to IAB OpenRTB 2.5 specification, especially concerning genre (congenre), title (contitle), content length in seconds (conlen), and live status of content (conlive)
• Correct transfer of Identifier for Advertising (IFA) across all OTT devices (smart TVs, video game consoles, streaming devices — excluding desktops/laptops and phones/tablets)*
• Enabling viewability measurement is required via OM SDK & OMID (released by the IAB in H2 2022) on the currently supported platforms: Apple TV and Android TV.

*outdated devices that are unable to support this identifier are excluded from this rule  

Player Requirements

• In-stream video ads must be served into and executed by a video player.
• The user views the ad right before or during the content in a linear way (no overlay video ads).
• Looped playing of the same video content is not permitted.
• The video player must be placed in a fixed position on full-screen on every CTV-device. 
• The ad must start with the sound on right before or during the content.

Placement Requirements

• User-generated content must be reviewed by the publisher’s editorial team or approved by smartclip.
• Overlay ads or video content that cover the in-stream player to any degree are not permitted.
• Only one video ad is allowed to play at a time within the viewport.  
• The video ad must be placed within the fullscreen video player of the actual content; placement on the app’s site maps is not permitted.