VAST
In practice, for a UK buyer
The paragraph above is the neutral answer. This is the part a vendor glossary leaves out.
Relevant to a buyer mainly as a delivery requirement: a CTV creative is not a video file, it is a video file plus its trafficking metadata, and a mismatch between them is a common reason a campaign fails to start. AdBuyMCP generates storyboards with the metadata attached so the creative and its trafficking record are one object rather than two things to reconcile.
What this one connects to
Most confusion in media buying comes from two adjacent terms being used interchangeably, so these are the neighbours worth reading next.
Connected TV (CTV)
Advertising delivered inside streaming television on an internet-connected device: a smart TV, a streaming stick, a games console. It is bought like digital media, with audience targeting and impression-level reporting, but watched like television, full-screen and usually unskippable.
Proof of play
A seller-supplied record confirming that a specific advert played on a specific screen at a specific time, with the play logged rather than estimated. The out-of-home equivalent of an impression log, since a screen cannot report who was in front of it.
More on measurement and evidence
What you can prove afterwards, and the difference between a number that means something and a number that does not.
45 minutes. Bring a real brief and we compile it live. You describe one audience and watch it compile into seven targeting specifications, each with the score for how much of the definition survived.
Talk it through