What is OpenRTB in CTV advertising?
OpenRTB (Open Real-Time Bidding) is the IAB Tech Lab standard that defines how bid requests and responses flow between publishers (via SSPs) and buyers (via DSPs) in programmatic advertising. When a viewer reaches an ad break on a CTV app, the publisher's SSP sends an OpenRTB bid request — a JSON object containing information about the impression (ad slot dimensions, video duration), the device (device type, device ID), the app (app bundle ID, app name), and any deal IDs associated with the impression. DSPs read this bid request and respond with a bid (CPM offer) if the impression matches their targeting criteria. The publisher's ad server selects the winning bid and fires the VAST tag to retrieve and play the winning ad.
What are the most important OpenRTB fields for CTV advertising?
The most important fields in a CTV OpenRTB bid request: device.devicetype (must be 3 for connected TV or 7 for smart TV — used to filter CTV-only buys in the DSP); device.ifa (the device advertising ID — GAID, TIFA, AFAI — which enables audience targeting and frequency capping); app.bundle (the app bundle ID used for brand safety inclusion/exclusion lists); imp.video.maxduration (maximum ad length in seconds — prevents 30s creatives from serving on 15s slots); pmp.deals (the deal ID object that triggers deal-specific bidding rules); content.cat (IAB content category enabling content-based targeting). If any of these fields are missing or incorrect in a publisher's bid stream, targeting and delivery are affected.
What OpenRTB issues are common in India CTV campaigns?
Four field-level issues appear frequently in India CTV bid streams: (1) device.ifa zeroed or absent — approximately 30–40% of India CTV impressions lack a valid device ID due to opt-outs or publisher configuration errors; these impressions cannot be audience-targeted or frequency-capped. (2) content.cat not populated — many India publishers omit content category data, preventing content-based targeting from functioning. (3) app.bundle inconsistent across TV OS platforms — the same publisher app has different bundle IDs on Android TV vs Samsung Tizen, breaking app-level brand safety lists. (4) BidRequest.site sent instead of BidRequest.app — some India publishers incorrectly classify CTV impressions as web, causing DSP brand safety and targeting tools to misclassify the inventory.