Hulu ad specs: Disney's video rules for Hulu and Disney+

Hulu ad specs come from Disney Advertising, whose Video Commercial spec covers ad breaks on both Hulu and Disney+: a 16:9 video (1:1 and 9:16 are rejected) at 1920×1080 preferred or 1280×720 accepted, in H.264 or ProRes 422 HQ at 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps, constant and progressive, with exactly one two-channel audio track (AAC or PCM, 128 kbps or more, 44.1 or 48 kHz) that matches the video's length. That page also asks for a constant 10–40 Mbps and 4:2:2 color, while Disney Campaign Manager's own list accepts 1.5–40 Mbps and 4:2:0. A Sume Timeline render can match the Campaign Manager list if its bitrate and audio check out, but it can't produce the constant bitrate or 4:2:2.

The rules are quoted from Disney Advertising's Video Commercial spec and Disney Campaign Manager's Tech Specs for Video Ads and home page, read on 2026-09-28; they can change. Sume facts come from the Timeline 1.0 and Video inspect docs, the Sume API reference, and Sume's media compiler as it works today.

What are Hulu's video ad specs?

Disney publishes two lists. They agree on shape, size, and frame rates, and differ on bitrate, color, and file size.

Which spec sheet applies to my ad?

The Video Commercial page covers ads placed in Hulu's and Disney+'s long-form ad breaks on TV, mobile, and web. Hulu manages the encoding, hosting, and streaming of those ads, and turnaround is up to 5 business days from receipt of the final assets.

Disney Campaign Manager is Disney's platform to set up, launch, and optimize streaming TV campaigns, with ads that may appear on Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN streaming. Its Tech Specs page is the list for ads you run there, and it adds a length rule: 5–90 seconds.

How do I make a Hulu ad with Sume?

Generate 16:9 shots and a voiceover, then assemble them with POST /v1/timeline-1.0/render. It reads only your workspace's media.sume.com files and needs an Idempotency-Key. Today its sound comes only from the audio spine and an optional soundtrack, not from the clips.

• Size: output 1920 × 1080.
• Frame rate: Disney asks for the native frame rate with no frame rate conversion. Omit output.fps and Timeline renders at the rate your clips already run at; then confirm that rate is on the list.
• Length: audio.duration_seconds sets the output length, such as 30, inside Campaign Manager's 5–90 seconds.
• Fit: keep the default cover. The Video Commercial spec doesn't allow letterboxing or pillarboxing, and blur pads a mismatched shape with a blurred copy of the frame.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/timeline-1.0/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: hulu-30s-001" \
  -d '{
    "audio": {
      "url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/voice.wav",
      "duration_seconds": 30
    },
    "video": [
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/shot-1.mp4", "start": 0, "duration": 15 },
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/shot-2.mp4", "start": 15, "duration": 15 }
    ],
    "output": { "width": 1920, "height": 1080 }
  }'

Can a Sume render meet Disney's bitrate and color rules?

Only Campaign Manager's, and only after a check. Today Timeline encodes H.264 with libx264 at a constant quality (-crf 20) in yuv420p, which is 4:2:0, with AAC audio at 192 kbps, and it refuses codec, crf, and other encoder keys with a 400. Check each render with the unbilled probe, POST /v1/video-inspect with frames: false:

• Video Commercial: MP@ML and 4:2:2, which its programmatic list also asks for, plus a constant 10–40 Mbps and constant-bitrate audio, need a re-encode in your own tools. The page waives the constant-bitrate rule for ProRes, which it calls variable by design.
• Campaign Manager: 4:2:0 and H.264 are accepted. Average bitrate is size_bytes × 8 ÷ duration_seconds, audio included; it should land between 1.5 and 40 Mbps (how to check a video's bitrate).
• Audio: 192 kbps clears the 128 kbps minimum. The master inherits the spine file's sample rate and channel count, so use a 44.1 or 48 kHz stereo spine and confirm audio_channels reads 2.

What else does Disney reject?

• Letterboxing on native 16:9 content and pillarboxing; Disney considers exceptions for a creative reason.
• CTA buttons that look clickable, with copy such as “Learn More” or “Buy Now”, because video commercials are not directly clickable on most devices. URLs and hashtags are accepted, and QR codes are subject to review.
• Leaders such as slates or countdowns.
• VPAID and VAST wrapper tags. Third-party VAST 2.0 and 3.0 tags from approved vendors are accepted.