IAB Tech Lab Opens Public Comment on Live Event Ad Playbook (LEAP) Forecasting API to Enable Advance Discovery of Live Event Inventory

Proposed Standard Builds On LEAP Initiative To Help Buyers Plan, Reserve, And Monetize Premium Live Programming; Available for Public Comment Until Friday, March 20, 2026

IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standard-setting body, announced the release of the Live Event Ad Playbook (LEAP)

Forecasting API for public comment. The proposed specification is designed to help address a long-standing industry challenge by enabling standardized discovery of upcoming programming, including but not limited to live events. Content owners can now share information with partners like schedules, expected ad breaks, and expected viewership. The Forecasting API represents Phase Two of the LEAP Initiative and is intended to support more effective planning, deal creation, and monetization of premium live and tune-in programming across the digital advertising ecosystem.

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“Live events continue to be one of the most valuable and technically complex areas of digital advertising,” said Anthony Katsur, CEO, IAB Tech Lab. “This proposal moves the industry earlier in the process by making future live inventory visible and actionable. It is about giving buyers and sellers the tools they need to plan ahead with confidence and scale those workflows through shared standards.”

Today’s programmatic systems generally lack consistent mechanisms for surfacing future inventory, limiting buyers’ ability to plan and reserve inventory in advance. The Forecasting API is designed to address that gap by allowing broadcasters and content owners to publish structured metadata to exchanges and DSPs. This includes information such as event schedules, expected ad breaks, and viewership forecasts, using a shared schema aligned with existing OpenRTB and AdCOM standards.

The Forecasting API builds on the foundation established by the Concurrent Streams API, which helps buyers and ad tech platforms understand the scale of live opportunities in real time. By moving upstream in the workflow, the Forecasting API enables earlier planning for live and tune-in programming, supports automated deal creation through integration with the Deals API, and helps participants take full advantage of highly engaged live audiences. Together, these components are intended to support a more scalable advance market for premium live content.

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“For years, Disney has been committed to modern and sophisticated forecasting capabilities to demonstrate the value of our premium Sports, Entertainment and News inventory,” said Alex Combs, Vice President, Ad Product, Disney Entertainment & ESPN. “As programmatic growth accelerates, standardized interoperability is no longer optional; it is the foundational infrastructure required to eliminate friction in buying. This is especially true for live events and programming,  where timing is crucial. Our active participation in the Forecasting and Concurrent Streams IAB Tech Lab initiative reflects our commitment to making automated buying as easy, efficient, and data driven as possible – delivering measurably better outcomes for our clients and creating an engaging experience for viewers.”

“As live and tentpole programming continues to grow across digital and streaming platforms, buyers and sellers need better ways to plan and coordinate around moments of peak viewer engagement,” said Daniel Perry-Zucker, Senior Product Manager, The Trade Desk. “By standardizing how the industry communicates about upcoming inventory, the Forecasting API helps improve monetization and consumer experiences alike—bringing greater speed, predictability, and scale to live advertising across the ecosystem, and we’re excited to help put these standards into practice.”

The Forecasting API reflects the industry’s growing focus on standardization as live streaming continues to expand and evolve. By thinking beyond the bidstream and enabling shared approaches to forecasting and planning, the specification aims to reduce friction, improve efficiency, and support more effective monetization of live content across the ecosystem. In addition to the API specification, Implementation Guidance has also been provided.