Ad Specifications

CBS Television Stations continually updates ad formats. Email questions to: CTSIOtraffic@cbs.com

Download Ad Specifications (.pdf) | Valid as of: June 18, 2009

Download Skin Template (.psd) | Valid as of: June 26, 2009

Download Home Page Skin Template (.psd) | Valid as of: June 26, 2009

Download Skin Spec/Creative Brief (.pdf) | Valid as of July 1, 2009

Download Video Gallery Skin Template (.psd | 7mb) | Valid as of Sept 24, 2009
 

Accepted Advertising Overview

  • Traditional images: *.jpg or *.gif. See size and weight chart below for accepted standards.
  • 3rd Party Tags: iFrame/Javascript (iLayer/Layer tags are not accepted due to cross-browser compatibility and stability issues)
  • Rich Media: Many formats accepted, see guidelines for more information. All rich media technologies require prior approval and testing prior to implementation.
  • No ad unit can prompt the download of a plug-in.
  • Newsletter creative must be static image. Rich media, 3rd party tags and html are not accepted.
  • All Flash file creative when submitted should also feature static backup creative (jpeg or gif).

     

Standard Placements

general-ad-specs

Rich Media Expandable Ads

rich-media-specs

Flash Action Click Tag
Flash Version 6+ (case sensitive)
on (release) {getURL (clickTag, "_blank"); }

Additional Tips To Ensure Properly Executed Flash Ads

  1. Main animation should be its own movieclip, not just on the main timeline. This will ensure there is only one frame on the main timeline. This provides cleaner code so the clicktag isn’t being called on every frame of the animation.
  2. ActionScript shouldn’t be placed directly on an object even in ActionScript 9. ActionScript 10 does not allow this.
  3. Producing ads in ActionScript 2 and publishing for Flash Player 10 typically creates problems. Try to publish in Flash 8 for ActionScript 2 Flash Player 9 with ActionScript 3.
  4. If you are publishing for Flash Player 9, use the following code in the first frame:


    5. //give the button an instance name of “theButton”
    var paramList:Object = this.root.loaderInfo.parameters;

    theButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, openURL);

    function openURL(evtObj:MouseEvent):void {
    var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(paramList["clickTag"]);
    navigateToURL(request, “_blank”);
    }

    Video

    video-ad-specs1

    Download Full list of Accepted Video File formats (.pdf) | Valid as of: August 26, 2009

    Custom Solutions

    custom-ad-solutions-spec

    Creative Brief | Skin design approach for CBS O&O Sites

    For: Agency’s, Creative Resources

  • The skin is considered supportive imagery for your main ad unit.
  • Primary messaging should resolve itself within the main ad unit.
  • Approach the design of the skin as an integrated layout rather than a large flat graphic that fades out to white. If you are dealing with CPG, Electronics, for example it’s very useful to silhouette important visual elements of a campaign around the shell of the site – preferably on a white background.
  • Tight cropping and bleeds create a compelling visual tool to market your product!
  • Try to keep text to a minimum within the skins, again bearing in mind that your main ad unit is the message and the skin is the visually rich support.
  • The skin file size should be around 100kb and should not exceed 125kb so that it does not negatively effect the load of the page

    • The CBS TV UX team can provide best practice examples to illustrate this technique.

    Note: These creative specs are a general guideline based on IAB standards. Please note that there may be variables based on the site, ad format, or vendor.