# Interactive Advertising Bureau
> IAB · New York, NY
- Profile type: Company
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-04T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/iab/
- Also known as: IAB, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet Advertising Bureau, IAB.com, IAB PwC report
## Summary
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is the U.S. trade body for digital advertising — research, advocacy, and industry convening for its 700+ media, brand, agency, and ad-tech members. Founded in 1996, it runs the annual NewFronts (the streaming-era counterweight to the TV upfronts) and co-publishes the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report, the benchmark U.S. digital ad dataset. Distinct from IAB Tech Lab, its independent standards arm spun out in 2014.

## Company facts

- Founded: 1996
- Headquarters: New York, NY
- Domain: iab.com
- CEO: david cohen (https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/david-cohen/)


## Key facts

- The Interactive Advertising Bureau was founded in 1996 in New York City and represents more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and technology firms across the digital advertising ecosystem. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/our-story/
- David Cohen joined IAB in April 2020 as President and was named Chief Executive Officer in September 2020. He came from MAGNA, the Interpublic Group media-investment arm, where he was President, North America and oversaw more than $20 billion in media spend. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/news/iab-names-david-cohen-president/
- On February 1, 2026, the IAB Board of Directors appointed NBCUniversal's Alison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships, as 2026 Board Chair, with Amazon Ads' Alan Moss as Vice Chair. The announcement coincided with IAB's 30th anniversary. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/news/iab-board-of-directors-appoints-new-chair-for-2026/
- The IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report — Full Year 2025, released April 16, 2026, found U.S. digital advertising revenue reached $294.6 billion in 2025, a 13.9% year-over-year increase. Digital video grew 25.4% to $78 billion; programmatic rose 20.5% to $162.4 billion; commerce media reached $63.4 billion (+18.0%); creator advertising hit $37 billion. The report is now in its 30th year as the industry's benchmark dataset. — IAB / PwC: https://www.iab.com/news/digital-ad-revenue-climbs-to-nearly-300b-as-iab-celebrates-30-year-anniversary/
- The 2026 IAB NewFronts ran March 23–26, 2026, in New York City. The presenter slate spanned the streaming and CTV stack — Google, YouTube, Samsung, VIZIO, Tubi, LG Ad Solutions, Amazon-aligned platforms via Yahoo and Snap, Comcast Advertising, TikTok, Meta, Walmart, Albertsons Media Collective, DoubleVerify, Teads, TiVo Ads, Xumo, and others. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/news/iab-unveils-2026-newfronts/
- IAB launched its independent technical-standards arm, IAB Tech Lab, on September 29, 2014, as a separate nonprofit research-and-development consortium. Tech Lab now maintains OpenRTB, ads.txt, sellers.json, the SupplyChain Object, VAST, OM SDK, and the Global Privacy Protocol — and operates with its own CEO (Anthony Katsur) and board, while IAB itself remains the trade body for research, advocacy, and convening. — IAB: https://www.iab.com/news/iab-to-launch-independent-research-development-tech-lab/


## Related

- iab tech lab (subsidiary (spun out 2014; operates as independent nonprofit standards body)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/iab-tech-lab/
- david cohen (President and CEO) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/david-cohen/
- alison levin (2026 Board Chair; President of Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/alison-levin/
- alan moss (2026 Board Vice Chair; VP Global Advertising Sales, Amazon Ads) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/alan-moss/
- programmatic advertising (trade body for the category (standards work delegated to IAB Tech Lab)) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/programmatic-advertising/


## External coverage

- IAB: Our Story — IAB (https://www.iab.com/our-story/)
- 2026-04-16 — IAB / PwC: IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report — Full Year 2025 (https://www.iab.com/insights/internet-advertising-revenue-report-full-year-2025/)
- IAB: 2026 IAB NewFronts (https://www.iab.com/events/newfronts-2026/)
- 2026-02-01 — IAB: IAB Board of Directors Appoints New Chair for 2026 — NBCUniversal's Alison Levin (https://www.iab.com/news/iab-board-of-directors-appoints-new-chair-for-2026/)
- 2026-04-16 — IAB: Digital Ad Revenue Climbs to Nearly $300B as IAB Celebrates 30-Year Anniversary (https://www.iab.com/news/digital-ad-revenue-climbs-to-nearly-300b-as-iab-celebrates-30-year-anniversary/)
- IAB: Creator Economy Ad Spend to Reach $37 Billion in 2025 (https://www.iab.com/news/creator-economy-ad-spend-to-reach-37-billion-in-2025-growing-4x-faster-than-total-media-industry-according-to-iab/)

## Profile
The Interactive Advertising Bureau is the trade body for U.S. digital advertising — the convening membership organization for the buy side, sell side, and platforms that move roughly $300 billion in annual U.S. digital ad revenue. Its three durable outputs are the **annual NewFronts** (the spring presentation week where streaming and digital-video sellers pitch upfront commitments to agency buyers), the **IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report** (the industry's benchmark revenue dataset, now in its 30th year), and a steady cadence of research, advocacy, and policy work on behalf of its ~700+ members.

## IAB vs. IAB Tech Lab — what each one actually does

The two organizations are routinely confused in trade coverage. They share a name, a New York address, and a founding lineage, but they do different work and have different leadership.

**IAB** (this page) is the trade body. It does research, advocacy, education, and convening — the [NewFronts](/companies/iab/), the annual Leadership Meeting (ALM), the PodCast Upfront, the [Creator Economy report](https://www.iab.com/news/creator-economy-ad-spend-to-reach-37-billion-in-2025-growing-4x-faster-than-total-media-industry-according-to-iab/), and the IAB/PwC revenue benchmark co-published with PricewaterhouseCoopers each spring. CEO is **David Cohen**, ex-MAGNA. Board Chair for 2026 is NBCUniversal's **Alison Levin**.

**[IAB Tech Lab](/companies/iab-tech-lab/)** is the technical-standards arm. IAB spun it out as an independent 501(c)(6) nonprofit in 2014. Its outputs are the protocols the open programmatic stack runs on — OpenRTB, ads.txt, sellers.json, the SupplyChain Object, VAST, OM SDK, GPP, and (as of April 2026) the [Programmatic Governance Council](/advertising-adtech/2026/04/iab-tech-lab-pgc-leap-launch/). CEO is **Anthony Katsur**, with a separate board.

The shorthand: IAB is where the industry meets and reports on itself. Tech Lab is where it writes the specs the bidstream actually runs on. When a story refers to "the IAB" without qualification, it almost always means the trade body — Tech Lab is consistently called by its full name in its own releases and in trade press that takes the distinction seriously.

## Why we track them

Three reasons IAB sits inside the directory rather than as a passing reference. First, the **NewFronts are the streaming era's upfront equivalent**: every CTV, FAST, and video-platform presenter — Disney, NBCU, YouTube, Samsung, VIZIO, Tubi, LG Ad Solutions, Comcast Advertising, TikTok, Meta — uses the IAB calendar to anchor their selling cycle, and the audience for those presentations is the same agencies that mark our coverage. Second, the **IAB/PwC report is the only neutral, methodologically consistent revenue benchmark for the U.S. digital ad market** — when a story needs a number for "U.S. programmatic spend" or "U.S. digital video ad revenue," the IAB/PwC report is almost always the source the analyst notes pull from. Third, IAB's **research and advocacy posture sets the policy-conversation frame** — its work on the open internet, signal loss, AI in advertising, and creator measurement is what the FTC, FCC, and Hill staff cite when pulling for context.

The trade body is not a regulator and has no enforcement authority. Its leverage is convening power and benchmark legitimacy — the calendar is the calendar because the industry has agreed it is, and the revenue number is the number because no one has built a more credible alternative.
## Coverage on The State of Streaming
- [Cognition Is the New Currency Layer for CTV Ads](https://thestateofstreaming.com/measurement-data/2026/05/cognition-attention-currency-ctv-ads/) — 2026-05-03
- [Three Deepfake Laws Hit CTV in 54 Days. No Federal Floor.](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/05/deepfake-ai-state-law-patchwork-q2-2026/) — 2026-05-03
- [Meta's 70% of Social Ad Revenue Is the Walled-Garden Math](https://thestateofstreaming.com/opinion/2026/05/social-ad-concentration-omdia-meta-70/) — 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
- [NY's $5,000 AI-Performer Ad Disclosure Law Hits June 9](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/04/ny-synthetic-performer-disclosure-june-2026-2/) — 2026-04-27
- [NY's $5,000 AI-Performer Ad Disclosure Law Hits June 9](https://thestateofstreaming.com/policy-regulation/2026/04/ny-synthetic-performer-disclosure-june-2026/) — 2026-04-27

## Tags

- trade-body
- nonprofit
- digital-advertising
- newfronts
- industry-standards
- advocacy

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