# IAB Tech Lab
> New York, NY
- Profile type: Company
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-04T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/iab-tech-lab/
- Also known as: IAB Technology Laboratory, IAB Tech Lab, Tech Lab, IABTechLab
## Summary
IAB Tech Lab is the nonprofit technical-standards body for the digital advertising supply chain, independent of but spun out of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in 2014. It maintains OpenRTB, ads.txt, sellers.json, the SupplyChain Object, VAST, and OM SDK — and in April 2026 launched the Programmatic Governance Council (PGC), extending its spec-writing mandate into supply-chain governance.

## Company facts

- Founded: 2014
- Headquarters: New York, NY
- Domain: iabtechlab.com
- CEO: anthony katsur (https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/anthony-katsur/)


## Key facts

- IAB Tech Lab was launched by the Interactive Advertising Bureau on September 29, 2014, as an independent nonprofit research-and-development consortium charged with producing global technical standards for the digital advertising supply chain. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/news/iab-to-launch-independent-research-development-tech-lab/
- Anthony Katsur was named CEO of IAB Tech Lab on July 15, 2021, starting August 2, 2021. He joined from Nexstar, where he was SVP of Digital Strategy, Corporate Development and Operations. — IAB Tech Lab: https://iabtechlab.com/press-releases/anthony-katsur-joins-iab-tech-lab-as-new-ceo/
- IAB Tech Lab's standards portfolio anchors the open programmatic supply chain — OpenRTB (real-time bidding protocol, v2.6.x as of September 2024), ads.txt and sellers.json (publisher-authorization transparency), SupplyChain Object (intermediary disclosure), VAST (video ad serving template), OM SDK (cross-platform viewability and verification), and GPP (Global Privacy Protocol, August 2024). — IAB Tech Lab Standards: https://iabtechlab.com/standards/
- On April 21, 2026, IAB Tech Lab launched the Programmatic Governance Council (PGC) with 13 founding members — Dentsu, Omnicom Media Group, WPP, Disney, Magnite, PubMatic, Hearst, News Corp, Yahoo, Amazon Ads, The Trade Desk, Raptive, and Mediavine — to address auction transparency in the roughly $200 billion U.S. programmatic market. — IAB Tech Lab: https://iabtechlab.com/press-releases/iab-tech-lab-launches-industry-council-to-address-transparency/
- On April 15, 2026, six days before the PGC launch, Amazon Ads donated the Dynamic Traffic Engine (DTE) — an open-source bidstream-shaping framework that lets DSPs publish prioritized bid-request signals — to IAB Tech Lab as a contribution to the OpenRTB ecosystem. — PR Newswire / IAB Tech Lab: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/iab-tech-lab-announces-dynamic-traffic-engine-donation-from-amazon-ads-to-improve-bidstream-efficiency-302742635.html
- The Live Event Ad Playbook (LEAP) Forecasting API public-comment period ran February 19 to March 20, 2026; Phase 3 (Buyer Instructions API) is expected later in 2026. Named LEAP partners include Disney Entertainment & ESPN, The Trade Desk, and NBCUniversal's Peacock. — IAB Tech Lab: https://iabtechlab.com/standards/leap/


## Related

- anthony katsur (CEO) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/anthony-katsur/
- iab (parent (spun-out 2014; IAB Tech Lab operates as independent nonprofit)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/iab/
- amazon (founding member of Programmatic Governance Council; donor of Dynamic Traffic Engine (April 2026)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/amazon/
- the trade desk (PGC founding member) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/the-trade-desk/
- magnite (PGC founding member) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/magnite/
- programmatic advertising (standards-body for the category) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/programmatic-advertising/
- openrtb (maintains the OpenRTB protocol) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/openrtb/


## External coverage

- IAB Tech Lab: About IAB Tech Lab (https://iabtechlab.com/about-the-iab-tech-lab/)
- IAB Tech Lab: IAB Tech Lab Standards Library (https://iabtechlab.com/standards/)
- 2026-04-21 — IAB Tech Lab: IAB Tech Lab Launches Industry Council to Address Transparency in $200B U.S. Programmatic Ad Market (https://iabtechlab.com/press-releases/iab-tech-lab-launches-industry-council-to-address-transparency/)
- 2026-04-21 — AdExchanger: The Tech Lab's New Programmatic Governance Council Is So Over All The Ad Tech Drama (https://www.adexchanger.com/technology/the-tech-labs-new-programmatic-governance-council-is-so-over-all-the-ad-tech-drama/)
- Digiday: Ad Tech Briefing — The Programmatic Governance Council is a bid to reset power dynamics (https://digiday.com/media/ad-tech-briefing-the-programmatic-governance-council-is-a-bid-to-reset-power-dynamics/)
- 2026-04-21 — MediaPost: New Programmatic 'Transparency' Initiative Excludes Advertisers (https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/414466/new-programmatic-transparency-initiative-exclude.html)

## Profile
IAB Tech Lab is the technical-standards arm spun out of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in 2014. Where IAB itself is the trade body — research, advocacy, the annual Leadership Meeting and NewFronts — Tech Lab is the engineering shop. Its outputs are the protocols the open programmatic stack actually runs on: OpenRTB for bid-request structure, ads.txt and sellers.json for who-can-sell-what attestation, the SupplyChain Object for hop-by-hop intermediary disclosure, VAST for video ad insertion, OM SDK for cross-platform viewability, and the Global Privacy Protocol for cross-jurisdiction consent signaling.

The body matters to a CTV/streaming audience for two reasons that have only sharpened in 2026. First, every dollar of programmatic CTV spend transacts on its specs — the bidstream Magnite, PubMatic, The Trade Desk, Amazon Ads, and the publisher-side ad servers all share runs on OpenRTB and is policed by ads.txt. Second, the body's April 2026 launch of the [Programmatic Governance Council](/advertising-adtech/2026/04/iab-tech-lab-pgc-leap-launch/) marks its first attempt to write business rules above its technical rules — a posture shift that follows the Amazon Dynamic Traffic Engine donation (also April 2026) and runs in parallel with the Live Event Ad Playbook (LEAP) standards work targeting live-sports inventory through the 2028 Olympics.

Tech Lab is not a regulator and not a court — it has no enforcement authority over members who deviate from its specs. Its leverage is conformance: a publisher who does not maintain a clean ads.txt loses bid requests; a DSP that does not honor SupplyChain Object loses sell-side trust. The W3C is a useful comparison from outside ad tech — both are voluntary standards bodies whose specs become de facto law through buy-in, not statute.
## Coverage on The State of Streaming
- [Streaming Hit 45.6 Percent of Ad-Supported TV. The Verification Stack Is Catching Up.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/ctv-transparency-ad-supported-default-ias/) — 2026-05-03
- [Machine Cognition Hits Programmatic Ads: 30 Autonomous Campaigns Live on PubMatic](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/machine-cognition-programmatic-ads-agentic-ai/) — 2026-05-03
- [PubMatic's AgenticOS Hits 1,000 Deals as Creative Suite Goes Live](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/05/pubmatic-agenticos-creative-suite-launch/) — 2026-05-03
- [The State of Streaming Has a Cognition Gap That's Already Repricing CTV Ads](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/state-of-streaming-cognition-gap-conviva-ads/) — 2026-05-03
- [Agentic AI Just Crossed Into the Workflow, Six Weeks Before NY's Disclosure Cliff](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/agentic-ai-creative-production-adobe-deepdub-2026/) — 2026-04-27
- [Agentic AI Just Crossed Into the Workflow, Six Weeks Before NY's Disclosure Cliff](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/agentic-ai-creative-production-adobe-deepdub-2026-2/) — 2026-04-27
- ['Independent' Has Stopped Meaning Anything Buyers Can Audit](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/04/independent-adtech-stack-walled-garden-thesis-2/) — 2026-04-27
- ['Independent' Has Stopped Meaning Anything Buyers Can Audit](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/04/independent-adtech-stack-walled-garden-thesis/) — 2026-04-27
- [Amazon Wires the Identity Stack Together Before NewFronts](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/amazon-identity-stack-consolidation/) — 2026-04-26
- [IAB Tech Lab's New Transparency Council Seats Holdcos, Not Brands](https://thestateofstreaming.com/advertising-adtech/2026/04/iab-tech-lab-pgc-leap-launch/) — 2026-04-26

## Tags

- standards-body
- ad-tech
- programmatic
- openrtb
- identity
- supply-chain-transparency
- nonprofit
- governance

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