The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced its final advertising creative guidelines for Broadband Video Communications online. Developed after a review of industry feedback, the IAB's released a compliance program to assist advertisers in identifying and selecting those publishers and technology providers who are compliant with their guidelines.

Highlights of the creative guidelines include the following:

• In-stream commercials may be up to thirty seconds long for pre and mid-roll commercials. Publishers may offer custom lengths for post roll.
• A recommended minimum of 200 Kbps for encoded bit rates.
• The minimum player controls present should be Start/Stop and Volume On/Off and Softer/Louder Control. Other recommended and acceptable buttons include Fast Forward/Rewind, Pause, Zoom and other Interactive buttons as needed. The following guidance will be accommodated during play. All buttons should be enabled throughout the play, with the exception of Fast Forward.

The Broadband Video Commercial creative guidelines were developed to further enhance the user experience without constraining creative opportunities for marketers and will improve the efficiency and ease of planning, buying and creating online media. These guidelines will allow advertisers and their agencies the ability to develop advertising content that is accepted by many of the leading interactive publishers.

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