CTV creative production requirements

A CTV ad must work on a television screen, and each booked placement needs an accepted version. Start with the placements and their current specifications.

Set the production brief

Record the audience, one main message, the intended next step, the booked services and formats, and who approves the creative. Confirm which placements run on television screens and which may also run on phones or computers. Ask each supplier for its current creative specification and a preview of the placement.

Check the booked placement’s duration limit before editing.

For Australia, Amazon Ads lists Prime Video ad lengths of 15, 20, 30, 40 and 60 seconds. Its 3P streaming TV apps list lengths from 6 to 90 seconds; confirm the length for the booked service rather than assuming the Prime Video options apply across placements.

Recommended Ad Durations for Amazon Ads (Australia)

Pre-Production Checklist for CTV Creative in Australia

Make the message work on television

Show the product or service clearly, limit competing on-screen messages and give important words time to be read. Keep essential text and qualifications within the supplier’s safe area and clear of any overlay. Review the finished edit on a television from an ordinary viewing position.

Check that speech, pictures and on-screen claims convey the same offer. The ACCC says it can require businesses to back up claims they make about their products or services.

Agree the caption treatment with each supplier. Nine’s third-party hosted 9Now in-stream specification does not support a separate closed-caption file and says required captions or subtitles should be placed in the video. Another placement may use a different method.

Amazon Ads strongly discourages pillarboxing or letterboxing because it can create an inconsistent viewing experience and potentially conflict with interactive ad overlays. Check the full-frame composition and any overlays together on the intended screen before approving the master.

Key Performance & Compliance Metrics for CTV Ads in Australia

Plan a feasible next step

See the related article for detailed guidance on choosing a response route for a booked format.

Prepare and review the delivery package

Keep an approved master and identify the export intended for each placement. Compare the actual file or tag with its supplier specification: duration, picture dimensions, aspect ratio, frame rate, codec, bitrates, audio format and loudness, caption treatment and any required renditions.

For third-party serving, confirm the accepted VAST version and playable media files. VAST defines an ad-serving format; it does not establish publisher approval.

Request a placement preview and the supplier’s acceptance status after submission. An upload check alone does not show how text or overlays appear on screen. Record any correction against the version submitted.

For Amazon Ads streaming TV, supply a 16:9 file with a minimum frame size of 1920 × 1080. The minimum video bitrate is 15 Mbps for Prime Video and 8 Mbps for Twitch, Fire TV Channels, third-party apps and exchanges; the recommended Prime Video bitrate is 50 Mbps.

Site-served creative must be MP4. Supported video formats are H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

Nine’s 9Now specification sets a 25 fps frame rate, H.264 encoding and progressive delivery. Audio loudness is -24 LKFS; the minimum audio bitrate is 128–192 kbps for AAC-LC or 64–128 kbps for HE-AACv1. Check these values against the actual export rather than relying on the edit timeline settings.

For 9Now, the minimum supplied rendition is low or medium quality; high and CTV renditions are optional but strongly recommended. Listed 16:9 sizes include 640 × 360, 1024 × 576, 1280 × 720 and 1920 × 1080, with separate 4:3 options at 640 × 480 and 768 × 576. Each rendition has its own bitrate range in Nine’s specification.

When generating a 9Now third-party video tag in Google Campaign Manager (DCM), manually add the 640 × 360 rendition at 500–700 kbps: Nine says DCM does not generate it automatically.

Nine accepts VAST 2.0 and 3.0, and lists Google Campaign Manager, DoubleVerify, Innovid, Flashtalking, Extreme Reach and Adform as accepted third parties.

For Nine-hosted 9Now delivery, the accepted format is MP4 and the maximum file size is 30 MB. The specification also requires a click-through URL; third-party click and impression trackers are optional.

CTV Creative Specifications for Major Australian Platforms