OpenRTB 2.6

OpenRTB 2.6 is the current production version of the IAB Tech Lab's real-time bidding spec, released in 2022 and ratified by every major DSP and SSP by mid-2023. It supersedes 2.5, which had been the dominant version since 2016. The key additions are (a) a first-class "dooh" object in the bid request, (b) richer pod-level fields for CTV ad-pod auctions, and (c) the "eids" array for ID-less identity primitives.

The new "dooh" object lets a sell-side platform describe a DOOH screen with the same expressiveness OpenRTB has always offered for web — venue category (using the OAAA/IAB taxonomy), screen dimensions, expected per-playout audience, and time-of-day. Before 2.6, DOOH SSPs hacked this into the "site" or "app" object, which led to subtle mismatches across DSPs. 2.6 makes it native.

The pod-level CTV improvements matter for DOOH because most DOOH inventory is sold as a loop of slots, which is structurally similar to a CTV ad pod. A pod-level request can carry slot count, slot durations, and competitive separation rules in a single round-trip — the alternative is one RTB call per slot, which doesn't scale.

For DSPs, supporting 2.6 is now table stakes. For SSPs, emitting clean 2.6 requests with the dooh object is the difference between bidder reach and a stranded inventory pool. Trillboards' partner SDK implements 2.6 natively on the supply side.