Peacock Ad Formats

Pre-Roll

Length: :15s ONLY
- Longer ad length may be considered. Speak to your account representative

Mid-Roll

Length: :15, :30, :45 and :60 are accepted

Creative Guidelines:

Creative is due 5 business days prior to campaign launch.

All Clients must be registered with Ad-ID and assign a valid Ad-ID code to each creative prior to submission of advertising creatives.

Clients can contact Ad-ID customer service at [email protected] or 704.501.4410 for assistance.
NBCUniversal will provide support in the onboarding process.
For information on Ad-ID, please visit: http://www.ad-id.org/

We are committed to making this a pristine ad environment. As a result, we need our client’s help to ensure users are not bombarded with repetitive ads.

Requirements include

‘Always On’
We cannot accept two ads stitched together to create one larger duration.
- Example: Two separate :15 ads stitched together to create a :30 ad
Minimum 3 creatives always available, including both :15s and :30s, :45s and :60s if necessary
Advertisers required to refresh creative quarterly to avoid ad fatigue
One stock evergreen creative to be used as needed (may be co-produced with NBCU)
Evergreen will be used to supplement rotation until late creative is received and/or during the time creative is paused to ensure a quality user experience.
The Ad Countdown Clock safe area should be a 320×80 box for the countdown and copy
- The box positioned with the top left corner at X:128, Y:943So 128px from the left, 943 pixels from the top
- **There are no objections to allowing subtitles baked into ads however, if sending creative with subtitles please be mindful of the countdown clock positioning. If your text is left aligned it will be blocked by the countdown clock.**

Creative Rotation Policy:

For launch partners, unlimited creative swaps allowed
The maximum creatives allowed in rotation at one time is six (6). Peacock will review any additional creative requests on an as-needed basis
No dark dates permitted at a client level. In the event no brands are live, evergreen creative will run until brands start running again.
NBCU will require one tag to run across all platforms and devices.
For creative swaps, NBCU must receive assets at least 5 days before swap.

Video Ads – Required Specs

NBCU-Served Video Submission/Encoding
VAST 2.0

NBCU-Served Video Submission/Encoding:

Dimensions:

1920×1080 Minimum

Duration:

:15s, only, Pre-Roll.
- Longer ad length may be considered. Speak to your account representative
:30s, :45s & :60s are accepted for Mid-Roll
Video duration must be the same length as the audio track or else video cannot be transcoded

Max File Size:

10 GB

File Format:

Video Ad-ID is required
- All clients must be registered with Ad-ID and assign a valid Ad-ID code to each creative prior to submission of advertising creatives. Clients can contact Ad-ID customer service at [email protected] or 704.501.4410 for assistance. NBCUniversal will provide support in the onboarding process. For information on Ad-ID, please visit: http://www.ad-id.org/
Quicktime (.MOV) accepted
MPEG-4 (.MP4) accepted
The file should include the ad only and not require any editing or clipping before transcoding (no bars/tones, slates, etc.).

Minimum Bit Rate:

Greater than 15Mbps

Frame Rate:

23.98 or 29.97 based on native frame rate
In order to ingest and fulfill creatives in the most efficient and reliable manner, deliver content in native frame rate and scan mode.
NBC does not accept any pre-processing

Aspect Ratio:

16:9

Video Codec:

Apple ProRes 422 HQ codec preferred (Video Bitrate must be at least 800 Kbps)
H.264 codec is accepted (Video Bitrate must be at least 50 Mbps)
DV codec | DVC Pro NTSC (DV25) or DVC Pro NTSC (DV50) accepted
Interlaced video is NOT accepted

Audio Codec:

Audio is required
2 channels only
PCM preferred
AAC codec accepted
192 kbps minimum
Stereo 16 or 24 bit
48 KHz sample rate 115KB – sample size
Audio track must be the same length as the video duration or else the video cannot be transcoded

VAST 2.0:

In order to hit rendition targets reflected in the NBCU specification (Mezz, High, Medium and Low) it is NBCU’s recommendation to use the highest quality source file.
To ensure accuracy across the various transcoding platforms in market we recommend a minimum bitrate threshold for source material of 50mbps.
Secure HTTPS tags only
All direct sold VAST tags are subject to internal NBCU QC processes and will be rejected if spec requirements are not met across all platforms.
For a detailed list of NBCU creative quality checks and descriptions, please Click Here
NBCU requires a total of FOUR files to run, no exceptions.
- Mezz, High, Medium and Low. Details below.
- This allows for the highest quality content and advertisement playback to run on all viewing endpoints: desktop, mobile web, apps and OTT.

Mezz (Required for Hulu and Streaming Stitching Environments)

Dimensions/Resolution:
- MP4/MOV: 1920×1080 HD or 1280×720 HD also allow 720×480 (SD)
Max File Size:
- 10 GB
Bit Rate:
- A minimum of 15 Mbps required, but 15-30 Mbps recommended
Audio:
- At least 192 Kbps
- Sampling Frequency should be 48000Hz
Aspect Ratio:
- 16:9

High

Dimensions/Resolution:
- MP4 ONLY: 1920×1080 HD or 1280×720 HD, 720×480 (SD) also allowed
Max File Size:
- Variable based on bitrate
Bit Rate:
- 3.25 – 5 Mbps
Audio:
- At least 96 Kbps
- Sampling Frequency should be 48000Hz or 44100Hz
Aspect Ratio:
- 16:9 or 4:3

Medium

Dimensions/Resolution:
- MP4 ONLY: 960×540 or 640×480
Max File Size:
- Variable based on bitrate
Bit Rate:
- 1 – 1.5 Mbps
Audio:
- At least 96 Kbps
- Sampling Frequency should be 48000Hz or 44100Hz
Aspect Ratio:
- 16:9 or 4:3

Low

Dimensions/Resolution:
- MP4 ONLY: 640×360 or 416×234
Max File Size:
- Variable based on bitrate
Bit Rate:
- 340-460 Kbps
Audio:
- At least 96 Kbps
- Sampling Frequency should be 48000Hz or 44100Hz
Aspect Ratio:
- 16:9 or 4:3

Duration:

:06 allowed for Pre-Roll only, 15, :30, :60 for Mid-Roll (limited inventory for :60)
:15 and :30 allowed (Movies only accepts :15)
NOTE: VAST tag cannot rotate various durations within. A separate VAST tag per duration required.

Frame Rate:

23.98, 25 or 29.97 based on native frame rate
In order to ingest and fulfill creatives in the most efficient and reliable manner, deliver content in native frame rate and scan mode. NBC does not accept any pre-processing (i.e apply Telecine, Inverse Telecine, scan mode conversion) of creatives. Applying any kind of pre-processing will hinder or degrade the creative renditions and thus, can impact monetization and viewer experience

Progressive Scan Type

Video Codec:

Interlaced video is not accepted
Apple ProRes 422 HQ or H.264 is accepted for mezzanine renditions
H.264 is required for all others (High, Medium, Low)

Audio:

Volume should not exceed the volume of the content and must be under –2dB.
Must follow CALM compliance loudness average of –24LKFS +/-2.
Secure HTTPS ONLY

Additional Notes:

VAST tags can also include MOV files, but MUST include a MP4 for each rendition: High, Medium and Low. If MP4 is not included for each then the asset will not pass and it must be revised or it cannot run.
For TV shows and Movies, DDT (day, date and time) is not allowed
Flighting, Capping and Targeting to be applied by NBCU only to ensure contractual obligations and correct delivery.
Time targeting, Frequency caps, Demo targeting, Geo targeting, etc.
Stitched creatives are not permitted.
Please note – tags cannot rotate different durations on the back end, we only allow one duration per tag. Additionally, we cannot breakout tags per durations, for example, all 30s creatives desired must rotate on backend of one tag instead of being split out into several tags.
VAST/VPAID URL cannot exceed over 1024 characters.

Partner Requirements: YouTube

Advertising on YouTube via NBCU Ad Sales must follow all of NBCU’s spec requirements listed on this page.
However, third party tag vendors must follow YouTube’s list of approved vendors.

Partner Requirements: Hulu

The Mezz file required for NBCU can also be used for Hulu, but creative targeted directly to Hulu must follow Hulu’s technical specs and acceptance policy.
Note: NBCU cannot utilize Hulu’s programmatic offering: “Third Party Tags – Programmatic” section is not relevant.

Approved Creative, Research & Verification Vendors:

For a List of Approved Creative, Research & Verification Vendors click here

Secure 3rd Party Impression Tracking pixel tag (noscript tag) accepted
Secure Research Tracking Pixel tag accepted (not STB)
Secure HTTPS tags only
Comcast X1 requires tracking pixels to support DualStack IPV4/IPV6 connectivity
Secure Quartile Tracking accepted

Sensitive Ad Categories that Require Preliminary Ad Standards Review:

The following categories of Creatives will require prior approval of NBCUniversal, provided in its sole discretion, 72 hours prior to exhibition on Peacock: