The IAB's Broadband Committee yesterday announced guidelines for broadband video ads in an effort to ensure that advertisers and agencies develop advertising content with consistent specs that can be accepted by leading interactive publishers. "The purpose of this set of guidelines is to lend efficiency to the online ad creation and media buying communities," according to the announcement.

The IAB recommendation focuses on streaming video-based advertising - and does not address streaming audio-only commercials or video within in-page ad units. It also does not address broadband ad measurement. The Broadband Committee recommends standardizing the name of streaming-video ads as "broadband video commercials" because they may appear before (pre-roll), during (mid-roll) and after (post-roll) content.

The recommendations cover location, panel size, encoded bit rate, commercial length, frequency controls and capping standards, among other issues. Publishers, agencies, advertisers, and technology vendors may submit comments and suggestions.