Glossary
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Addressable Advertising: TV advertising that is shown to different groupings of households who share common characteristics. Viewers will see advertising that is more relevant to them. Advertisers can address market segments by more precisely tailoring ads to their audiences and increasing the impact of the messages.
ADI: Area of Dominant Influence which refers to the counties or areas in which a station has high viewership.
Adjacencies: Spots that run during prime time hours and are purchased by national sponsors. Local stations can sell adjacencies, which includes time allotted at the top and bottom of each prime time hour.
Affidavit: Notarized proof that the spot ran as billed
Avails: Spots or infomercial time periods available for purchase. Avails can include thirty-second spots up to hour or multiple hour advertising.
Average Frequency: The average number of times a household (or person) views an advertiser’s television schedule. Unlike reach, frequency is not a percentage. See below how reach, frequency and gross rating points all relate:
GRPs = Reach x Frequency
Basic Cable: Programming services distributed by a cable system to subscribers for a basic monthly fee. These include one or more local broadcast stations, distant broadcast stations, non-pay cable networks, and local origination programming.
Cable Penetration: The percentage of homes within a given area that subscribe to cable.
Cable System Operator: The company or individual responsible for the operation of a cable television system (usually the system owner as well).
Cable Television System: A facility designed for the purpose of receiving multiple broadcast and/or non-broadcast signals and distributing them via coaxial or fiber-optic cable to subscribers.
Channel Capacity: The number of channels available for current or future use on a cable system.
Compression: The method for compacting the digital representation of a television signal for more efficient transmission or storage.
Converter Box: A device that translates cable signals into television signals and allows the viewer to select individual channels.
CPM: Cost per Thousand, which is the cost of reaching one thousand households or persons with a spot. To calculate CPM, advertisers do the following:
| CPM = cost per spot X average audience | ||
| 1000 | ||
CPP: Cost per rating point represents the cost of each rating point for a specific schedule.
| CPP = Cost of Schedule | ||
| Gross rating points | ||
Daypart: A standard time period in which a program or commercial airs. These terms are by no means standard and advertisers should check with their local cable operator. Times are normally defined as follows:
| Morning = Sign on to Noon |
| Afternoon = Noon – 4p |
| Early Fringe = 4p -6p |
| News = 6p-7p |
| Prime Access = 7p-8p |
| Prime Time = 8p-11p |
| Late Fringe = 11p – Midnight |
| Late Night = Midnight – Sign Off |
DAI Dynamic Ad Insertion refers to the ability to deliver customized, targeted ads based on the user.
Demographics: Designates the mix of people according to specific age or income brackets that watch a particular program or station. As an example, carpet retailers generally want to reach women, age 18-45, in middle and upper income brackets.
Designated Market Area (DMA): A unique geographic area defined by Nielsen Media Research so that the entire US is assigned to one of some 210 DMAs.
Digital: The use of a binary computer code to represent information. In cable, digital transmission is much “cleaner” than analog. Digital technology also allows for more information to be processed.
Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS): A service that transmits satellite signals directly to a home through a viewer’s own satellite dish, rather than through a cable system.
Fiber Optics: A method of transmitting signals over light waves sent through extremely thin fibers spun from glass.
Fragmentation: When broad television audiences break into smaller segments due to multiple viewing choices and “niche” programming that targets particular demographics.
Frequency: The average number of times the unduplicated viewers will be exposed to the schedule of commercials.
Gross Impressions: The average number of persons that are viewing a program at the time the commercial is running multiplied by the number of times the commercial runs.
Gross Rating Points (GRPs): The total of all rating points achieved in a market area for a specific schedule of commercials.
Head End: The equipment at a cable system that receives the various program source signals, processes them, and retransmits them to subscribers.
HH: Acronym for households
HH%: Acronym for percentage of households covered.
Homes Passed: The number of homes in which cable television service is or can be readily made available because feeder cables are in place nearby.
HUT’s: Acronym for Homes Using Television
Infomercial: A commercial, usually 90 seconds or more in length, designed to supply information about a product or service, rather than to present a specific sales message.
Interconnect: Two or more systems that distribute a commercial signal simultaneously, primarily to maximize the effectiveness of an advertising schedule, and offering a multiple system buy in which only one contract needs to be negotiated. Interconnects can be difficult, where systems are directly linked by cable, microwave relays or satellite, and the signal is fed to the entire interconnect from one source point; or soft, where there is no direct operational connection between the participating systems but the same commercial is run by each of the systems.
Leased Access: Represents a public access channel for which programmers pay a nominal fee for use and are permitted to sell commercial time in their programming.
Local Origination (LO): Programming produced by a local cable system for presentation on the system. This may also include syndicated programming acquired by the system.
Long Form: A television commercial that lasts longer than two minutes.
M-F: Acronym for Monday thru Friday.
Media Agencies: An agency that focuses on media ad campaigns, media buying and planning.
Multiple System Operator (MSO): A company that owns and/or operates more than one cable system.
Must Carry: The FCC ruling that requires all cable systems to carry local broadcast television signals within their market.
MVPD Multichannel Video Programming Distributor. In the United States, a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) is a service provider that delivers video programming services, usually for a subscription fee (pay television). These operators include cable television (CATV) systems, direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) providers, wireline video providers and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) using IPTV.
Narrowcasting: Programming designed to reach a specific group defined by demographics and/or program content.
Pay Cable: Cable programming services for which subscribers pay an additional fee above the basic cable service charge.
Pay-Per-View (PPV): Programming for which viewers pay a separate fee for each program view.
Penetration: The proportion of homes subsidizing to cable measured as a percentage of the total number of TV households in a specified area.
Per-Inquiry-Advertising: Direct response advertising for which the cable network or system running the commercial is paid based on the number of responses received rather than the commercial time used.
Public Access: A non-commercial channel set aside by a cable system for use by the public on a first-come, first-serve, nondiscriminatory basis.
Rating: A statistical estimate of a program’s popularity expressed as a percentage of the number of households watching among all television households.
Reach (Cume): The estimated number of unduplicated or different households, or persons, who viewed a specific station at least once for five minutes during the average week for the reported time period; circulation.
Roadblocking: The process of stripping commercials in designated time periods across multiple cable channels. This can be an effective method for catching channel zappers.
Run of Schedule (ROS): Stations can run spots at their own discretion. These spots usually cost less, but often air at times when viewership is low.
Share: Audience measurement estimate expressed as the percentage of viewers watching a particular show among all those watching TV at that time.
Subscriber: A household or business that legally receives and pays for cable and/or pay television service for its own use (not for retransmission).
Super: A method of super-imposing copy over the TV picture. Supers usually include logos, store names, dates, prices, and other information important to an advertiser.
Tag: An oral and /or visual message (usually 5 seconds) added to the end of a commercial usually giving store name, address or other information.
Target Audience: A market segment that is defined by age, sex, income, education, and other demographic information.
Tiering: Supplying subscribers to a cable system with one or more programming services beyond the basic offerings at an extra charge. Each additional price increment is called a tier.
Total Survey Area (TSA): The entire geographic are where a station signal reaches.
Viewers per Viewing Household (VPVH): A demographic percentage that explains how many persons per 100 or per 1,000 households are viewing a particular program. For example, a VPVH of 80 K2-11 indicates that for every 100 households viewing, there are 80 kids aged 2 to 11.
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