Digital (personal) video recorder.

Video On Demand, a system that permits access to content normally distributed by television at the time and on the device of the viewer’s choice. VOD systems are usually run by pay-TV operators or channel operators. Standalone OTT systems such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu are sometimes also termed “VOD”. Variations include AVOD (advertising-supported VOD) and SVOD (subscription-based VOD).

Over The Top, a standalone VOD system designed to deliver content on the user’s choice of time and viewing device. The large multinational OTT services are Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, AppleTV+. Increasingly, publishers of high-profile content such as HBO and ESPN offer it on their VOD services outside pay-TV subscriptions, and are thus effectively becoming more like conventional OTT operators.

Percentage of individuals or households in the intab that watched or heard the designated content (written without the percentage symbol). The designated content can be a channel/station/network, programme, series, VOD service, or OTT service.

One hundredth of the intab.

The rating at a specific moment or an average moment in a time interval.

The rating of unduplicated persons or households who watched or heard a minimum number of minutes of the designated content over an interval (cume period).

A distribution of the number of impressions a campaign makes on members of its cume: any, 2+ impressions, 3+ etc.

An important analytical tool in the advertising industry. Helps marketers, advertising agencies and media buyers plan and assess the results of campaigns vis-à-vis a fundamental conundrum: is it better to reach fewer people more times, or more people fewer times, for the same expense?

The percentage of contemporaneous viewers or listeners in the intab (rather than of the entire intab) who watched or heard the designated content during a specific moment or an average moment in a time interval.

The rating among households. Any viewing or listening by a member of the household contributes to the household rating of that content, but each household can be counted no more than once in that rating. In a household of more than one person with more than one viewing or listening device, the household rating may theoretically exceed 100.

The rating among persons.

The rating of all households using television at a specific moment or an average moment in a time interval.

The rating of all persons using television at a specific moment or an average moment in a time interval.

A single instance in which an intab member viewed or listened to an advertisement, campaign or programme.

The count of impressions generated by an advertisement, campaign or programme regardless of the identity of the persons or households reached. A crude measure of efficiency.

The cost of reaching one thousand gross impressions.

The cost of reaching one rating point.

The average time spent viewing designated content over a designated time interval.

The minimal and maximal delay of viewing from airtime, using DVR and VOD technologies, represented by the bucket.

The count of persons or households in the geographic area represented by the sample, possibly with demographic qualifications.

The count of persons or households in the universe that the rating represents, calculated by extrapolating the sample to the universe.

The households or persons (or both) that are usually available to supply viewing or listening data to the audience measurement service.

The cooperating part of the sample. Calculated for each reporting day. A sample member has to be available to supply measurement data to the service a sufficient part of the reporting day, and to supply these data sufficiently timely, to meet the service’s intab rules and be included in the service’s published data for that day.

Collection of demographic data from a new sample member (a person, or each person in a member household) performed before the sample member’s data are used. Typically asks age, gender, and in some systems, socioeconomic questions (household income, occupation, employment, education, or equivalent), and presence of children in the household.

The extent to which the sample composition approximates that of the universe on parameters for which the sample is controlled, such as age, gender, geography and socioeconomic strata.

Statistical treatment of the sample and the measurement data that adjusts for discrepancies between the compositions of the sample and the universe.

Calculated per sample member per day in the process of sample balancing, and used to adjust the measurement data from that sample member relative to the others, so as to produce results similar to those from a perfectly representative sample of the same size.

The 24-hour period used in standard reports. In Latin America and most of the world, it starts at 06:00 local time on the nominal date of the report and ends at 06:00 the following day. In the USA, the boundary is at 03:00 ET and PT, 02:00 CT and MT.

A part of the day between standard start and end times.

The daypart with the highest viewing. In Latin America, typically 19:00–00:00 local time. In the USA, 20:00–23:00 ET and PT, 19:00–22:00 CT and MT.

The ratings service whose data are typically used to regulate economic relations between advertisers and broadcasters, or programme content owners and broadcasters.