As live streaming and digital broadcasting reshape advertising strategies, industry stakeholders are seeking better ways to plan and monetize high value programming. The introduction of the LEAP Forecasting API by IAB Tech Lab represents a major step toward improving advance visibility into live event advertising inventory across the MarTech ecosystem.
IAB Tech Lab, the global technical standards organization for digital advertising, has released the Live Event Ad Playbook Forecasting API for public comment. The proposed specification is designed to address a long standing industry challenge by enabling standardized discovery of upcoming programming, including live events and scheduled content. Through the framework, content owners can share critical planning data such as schedules, expected ad breaks, and projected audience reach with advertising partners.
The Forecasting API marks Phase Two of the broader LEAP Initiative, which focuses on improving planning, deal creation, and monetization opportunities for premium live and tune in programming. By introducing shared technical standards, the initiative aims to help buyers and sellers coordinate earlier in the advertising workflow and unlock greater efficiency across programmatic ecosystems.
“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.”
Current programmatic advertising systems often lack consistent mechanisms for surfacing future inventory, limiting advertisers’ ability to reserve placements or prepare campaigns ahead of time. The LEAP Forecasting API addresses this gap by allowing broadcasters and publishers to publish structured metadata directly to exchanges and demand side platforms. The specification uses a shared schema aligned with established OpenRTB and AdCOM standards, ensuring interoperability across the advertising technology landscape.
The new API builds on the Concurrent Streams API, which provides real time insight into live audience scale. By extending capabilities upstream into forecasting and planning, the specification supports earlier campaign preparation and automated deal creation through integration with the Deals API. Together, these technologies aim to create a more scalable advance marketplace for live advertising opportunities tied to highly engaged audiences.
“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.”
Industry participants also emphasized the importance of standardized communication around future inventory. “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.”
By enabling shared forecasting frameworks beyond the traditional bidstream, the LEAP Forecasting API reflects the advertising industry’s growing focus on interoperability, automation, and scalable monetization as live streaming continues to expand globally. The public comment period, alongside released implementation guidance, invites industry collaboration to refine standards that could shape the future of live event advertising infrastructure.
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