NBCUniversal Creative Guidelines
NBCUniversal Creative Guidelines
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FIFA World Cup 2026: Linear Commercial Guidelines

Telemundo, Universo and Peacock are NBCU's primary platforms for coverage of the FIFA World Cup 2026 airing June 11- July 19, 2026. This page provides the linear creative guidelines. 

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  •  NBCUniversal recommends all clients register with AD-ID and assign a valid AD-ID code to each creative prior to submission of advertising creatives. NBCU provides support in the onboarding process. 

    • There is a 15 character max for all creative codes. 

    • High Definition (HD) creative includes an H at the end of the code. 

Questions?

Air Dates and Creative Deadlines 

Air date 

Creative deadline 

Thursday, June 11 through Sunday, July 19, 2026 

 

30 days prior to first air date

  • Initial clearance materials delivered to Ad Compliance 

5 business days prior to first air date

  • Traffic instructions for NBC, Peacock, and Telemundo  

  •  All commercials in-house and approved for air 

General Guidelines

  • All commercials must conform to the public and industry advertising standards and to the programming and operating policies of NBCUniversal. 

  • Commercials must comply with NBCUniversal’s technical standards. 

  • In no event shall NBCUniversal be liable for the contents of a commercial in its telecast. 

  • All material must use SMPTE "drop-frame" time code.  

  • Only the commercials that are scheduled on the final playlist will be ingested for air. All commercials will be ingested ‘as is’ despite audio or visual discrepancies. Agencies will be notified of on-air discrepancies.  

  • The placement and designation of commercial positioning shall be determined solely by NBCUniversal network.  

  • To help advertisers reach the largest possible audience, NBCUniversal requires commercial content with closed captioning (CC), which should be in the same language as the primary audio track. For questions about technical specifications or instructions, please consult your vendor. 

  • To submit a spot:

    • Create an account with one of the vendors listed below.

    • Upload your spot(s) to that vendor using their required specifications.

  • Once your spot(s) has passed their internal QC process, submit an “Order for delivery” and select the appropriate network as the delivery location. 

  • Delivery of file-based content is accepted only from the following pre-approved vendors.

https://nbcuadproducts.atlassian.net/wiki/s/1501342516/6452/a5e9a05c49c0d433ce7adb3838f56979136cdc1c/_/images/icons/emoticons/warning.png

  • For all NBCUniversal properties, there is a limitation of 15 characters for all AD-IDs.   

  • Copy will not air without written instructions.   

  • An AD-ID/ISCI-coded commercial must be sent to NBCU twice. Operations and Standards do not share libraries; this ensures rejected spots/non-final versions of spots never go to air. 

    • Via vendors (this is the final version of the spot that will go to air) 

    • To the Standards site (details below) 

Technical Specifications

Distribution format

Suppliers must deliver commercial content through digital distribution.

https://nbcuadproducts.atlassian.net/wiki/s/1501342516/6452/a5e9a05c49c0d433ce7adb3838f56979136cdc1c/_/images/icons/emoticons/warning.png FTP, DVD or emailed file formats (e.g., WVM) are not accepted.

Commercial file for delivery

  • NBCUniversal requires only one file of a commercial file be electronically delivered to NBCU’s Media Ops Center at least 5 working days before the first scheduled airdate.

  • For spots bought on a rotating basis (e.g., Monday through Friday), the first day in the rotation is considered the effective airdate.

  • Address packages to all networks in which it will air.

HD

HD commercials must include an “H” appended to the end of the AD-ID code (e.g., ABCD1234H).

Audio codec

  • Limit to –2 dBFS

  • Average of -24 LKFS* (+/-2 dB) of the full program mix (not only dialog) of the soundtrack

  • Dialogue intelligibility is extremely important and must established and maintained for the duration of the content

  • Use of a low frequency enhancement channel (LFE) is encouraged when considered appropriate by the sound designer

    • Some portion of the LFE signal should be mixed into the left and right channels to maintain the appropriate presence of this signal.

  • NBCUniversal authors the audio metadata required for ATSC digital television transmissions

Loudness

  • ITU-R.BS.1770-based broadcast loudness meter for measurement. Minor variation of +/- 2dB about the -24 LKFS loudness average is anticipated and acceptable.  

  • Don’t target content loudness to the high and low side of this range.

  • All delivered content will be loudness normalized to meet this requirement, if necessary. This process shifts average loudness to -24LKFS with no impact to dynamic range.

    • Content delivered softer than Telemundo’s -24LKFS average loudness specification will be loudness normalized to a maximum specification of -24LKFS -2/peak. 

    • Delivered peak level of soft content may restrict normalization up to the -24LKFS target. 

  • A tight tolerance surrounding the -24LKFS average is especially critical at the start and end of content or segments to establish smooth program to commercial transitions.

  • Average soundtrack loudness of -24 LKFS, matching the Telemundo’s default dialog level metadata, is critical for proper operation of the dynamic range control system used for ATSC AC-3 audio.

https://nbcuadproducts.atlassian.net/wiki/s/1501342516/6452/a5e9a05c49c0d433ce7adb3838f56979136cdc1c/_/images/icons/emoticons/check.png NBCUniversal strongly encourages you to audition your content at the -24LKFS average dialog loudness.

Closed captioning

If captioning is provided, record on Field 1, Line 21 on CC1 in compliance with the EIA 608 standard. Except for the use of CCI for closed-captioning, commercials for air may not contain any data embedded into or encoded onto the commercial audio or video without the prior written consent of NBCUniversal. Agency and/or advertiser must notify NBCUniversal, reasonably in advance, of the existence of said content on any commercial. See 79.1 of the Code of Federal Regulations for more.

Watermarking and tracking

  • NBCUniversal doesn’t support the use of audio or video watermarking or tracking technologies embedded in ancillary data space or otherwise included in the materials for exhibition/transmission.

  • NBCUniversal takes no responsibility for the use of such technologies or their preservation in transmission to the audience.

Emergency alert signals

  • The FCC prohibits the transmission of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) codes or Attention Signal (853 Hz and 960 Hz transmitted simultaneously) or a recording or simulation thereof except in the case of an actual emergency or authorized EAS test.

  • The rule applies to all forms of content, including programs, commercials and other paid programming, PSAs, promos and other interstitial material. The FCC hasn't defined what constitutes a prohibited simulation and has brought enforcement actions against sound effects other than actual EAS tones. Content containing EAS tones or simulations are not be accepted for broadcast. 

Purging commercial materials

  • Commercial assets are purge eligible from all systems 90 days from last air date or 90 days after received if it never aired.

  • Commercial assets are not returnable.

  • If for any reason you need to have a commercial removed or purged out of the NBCUniversal library, please send the notification to the appropriate contact for each network.

  • NBCUniversal has one central library for all its TV and cable networks, therefore purging content for one network removes availability for all other NBCUniversal TV and cable networks.

  • If a commercial cannot air due to legal reasons and must be pulled off the air immediately, please notify the appropriate network contact by email and by phone.

Traffic instructions

  • All commercial instructions must include agency, agency contact, advertiser, network, flight, brand, AD-ID, and length.

  • Revisions must be clearly marked with the word “revision” and the revision number. All revisions should indicate what was changed from the prior instructions and the effective date. All other information will be ignored and is not binding.

  • The AD-ID for HD commercials must end with an “H”.

  • Send all commercial instructions in document form (PDF or Excel) via email to the specific network traffic instruction email address. Generic templates are available.

  • Body of email, zip file, and/or link traffic instructions aren’t accepted.

Traffic instruction email contacts

Advertising Compliance

Pre-Production Review

Prior to production, advertising agencies should submit a script or storyboard of the proposed advertisement to Advertising Standards. Advertising Standards will request substantiation for all claims and authentication of all demonstrations and testimonial statements, as applicable.  

Rough Cut Review

Advertisers may submit rough cuts for review before final production. 

Final Approval

All finished advertisements must be slated with a unique ISCI code, a title, and the length of the advertisement. 

The advertiser and its representatives are responsible for ensuring that submitted materials comply with all applicable governmental laws and regulations, including the rules of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), as well as NBCU's internal guidelines, standards, and policies. After reviewing the submitted materials, NBCU may give approval, request additional information, require modifications to the advertisement, or deem the advertisement not acceptable for air. 

Resources

  • For step-by-step instructions on uploading via the Standards website, see the Guide to Uploading to NBC Standards Website. 

    • (Select TELEMUNDO, PEACOCK, UNIVERSO or PEACOCK HISPANIC as the destination.) 

  • For additional information on using the Standards website, visit the support page.  

Network

Telemundo/Universo 

Categories requiring approval by Standards 

All

Submission process 

Time for review 

3 business days minimum 

Additional Notes 

  • English and Spanish language spots can be submitted for approval.

  • During FIFA World Cup 2026, there are no restrictions on the language of commercials. All spots will be reviewed by Ad Compliance and may air in either English or Spanish, without language restrictions. 

  • All creative requires final approval by Ad Compliance.

  • When uploading clearance materials, in the Comments box on the Create Submission page, you must include the following note:

    • “Clearance submission for FIFA WORLD CUP 2026 on [insert network name] (DATE OF THE EVENT).”