CTV & video · also called Video Player-Ad Interface Definition
VPAID
VPAID (Video Player-Ad Interface Definition) is an older IAB standard letting interactive ad code run inside video players, now deprecated in favour of SIMID and OM SDK.
VPAID defined how an ad unit, originally Flash and later JavaScript, could communicate with a video player: telling it when to pause, how long the ad was, when the user interacted, and so on. It made interactive video ads possible, and verification vendors also used it to run measurement code inside the player.
The problem was that VPAID gave ad code control over the playback environment. That caused slow loading, crashes, poor performance on mobile and TV, and security and fraud risks, since the ad could run arbitrary code and report whatever it liked. Some fraud schemes used VPAID to fake viewability or run multiple ads in hidden players. Many CTV and SSAI environments simply could not support it.
IAB Tech Lab replaced it with a cleaner split: SIMID for interactive creative, in which the player stays in control, and the Open Measurement SDK for verification. VAST 4.1 and later removed support for VPAID-style executable ads in favour of these. VPAID still appears in legacy web inventory, but buyers increasingly avoid it.
Think of it like this
VPAID was like letting a guest performer take over the theatre's lights and sound desk; SIMID lets them perform while the theatre's own technician stays in charge.
An example
A publisher in Italy stops accepting VPAID creatives after finding they increased video start times by two seconds and caused crashes on smart TVs, switching to VAST with SIMID and OM SDK.
Related terms
SIMID
SIMID (Secure Interactive Media Interface Definition) is an IAB Tech Lab standard for adding interactive elements to video ads, while leaving the video player in control of playback.
VAST
VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) is the IAB Tech Lab standard XML format that tells a video player which ad to play, where to fetch it and which tracking events to report.
Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK)
The Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) is an IAB Tech Lab standard toolkit that lets verification vendors measure viewability and invalid traffic inside apps and other environments through one shared integration.
Instream video
Instream video is a video ad that plays within a video player before, during or after video content the viewer chose to watch, such as pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll.
Rich media
Rich media ads are interactive or animated ads, such as expanding banners, video-in-banner, games or carousels, that invite user engagement beyond a static image or simple click.
Sources: IAB Tech Lab VPAID, IAB Tech Lab SIMID, IAB Tech Lab Open Measurement SDK