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Glossary - TV Ratings lingo!
The terms and TLA's for the world of Ratings in the UK.
AB
See Social Grade.
ADULTS
In UK audience measurement, 'Adults' refers to all viewers aged 16 and over.
AUDIENCE
The absolute number of people watching a programme, channel or day-part in a given demographic. Audience is typically expressed in thousands or millions.
BARB
The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, responsible for UK television audience data.
BARB DATASETS
To achieve both speed of delivery and maximum accuracy, BARB data sets are released in phases. Live + VOSDAL Data provides Live viewing and Timeshift viewing on the day of transmission. Consolidated Data provides data on Live Viewing and Timeshift over the following seven days. Programme Data finalises the exact durations of programmes and breaks (enabling Intervals to be shown) and provides the final “gold standard” measure of viewing to selected content. In addition VOD Data is delivered in seperate files daily.
INTERVALS
Breaks in transmission for advertising and promotion. Intervals are only available from Programme Data.
LIVE (AUDIENCE)
The number of people watching at the time of transmission, rather than through recorded playback.
LIVE + VOSDAL (AUDIENCE)
Live + Viewed on Same Day as Live - The number of people watching at the time of transmission and any recorded playback up until 2am the same day.
LOYALTY
This is a measure of how long individuals are watching programmes before switching away. It is calculated by dividing the average Audience by the Reach.
METADATA
Data used to describe other data. For example, the Production Company field added to the BARB data by Attentional is metadata, as it describes other data (the programme).
BARB PANEL
The sample of UK television households from which BARB constructs viewing estimates.
BENCHMARKS
Benchmarking is used widely by Attentional to provide a measure of how a set of figures compare to 'normal'. In general, a benchmark figure will be produced by calculating an average value (of share or audience for instance) for a given channel, timeslot and date range. Figures that are produced against a benchmark are often expressed as an index. Where such an index is used a figure of 100 indicates a performance equal to the benchmark. Figures above 100 indicate better performance than the benchmark, while figures below 100 indicate worse performance.
BVOD
Broadcaster Video on Demand. - Services from the UK broadcasters that provide On Demand streaming, such as iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD, NETFLIX, Disney + etc.
C1
See Social Grade.
C2
See Social Grade.
MULTICHANNEL HOME
Any household receiving Cable (e.g. Virgin), Satellite (e.g. Sky, Sky+) and/or digital terrestrial transmissions (e.g. Freeview).
NETWORK
In an audience context, Network usually refers to any programme shown in four or more regions of the UK simultaneously (e.g. not a regional transmission).
OVERNIGHT
A report based on viewing data from the day before, usually delivered daily in the form of a schedule with ratings data.
PANEL50
This is the full BARB panel, containing a mix of household types representative of the UK population.
PANEL70
This is a subset of the BARB panel, containing only multichannel homes.
CHILDREN
In UK audience measurement, 'Children' refers to all viewers aged 4-15. Viewers under 4 years of age are not monitored separately.
CONSOLIDATED AUDIENCE
This is the sum of the Live and Timeshift audiences.
DAYPART
This is a section of the viewing day. Different broadcasters use different variations, but typical examples include Breakfast (0600-0930hrs), Daytime (0930-1800hrs) and Peaktime (1800-2300hrs).
DE
See Social Grade.
DEMOGRAPHIC
Direct-to-Home - Is a digital satellite service that provides television services direct to subscribers, e.g. Sky platform in the UK.
PLATFORM
A term used to describe the various ways in which a household can receive a TV signal. Six platforms are currently available in the UK: analogue terrestrial, analogue satellite, analogue cable, digital terrestrial, digital satellite and digital cable.
PROGRAMME AUDIENCE
This is the average audience for all the minutes covered by the programme, excluding advertisements, trailers and promotions.
PRIMETIME
For the purposes of calculating an Relative Share Index figure a 'primetime programme' (also known as ‘peak time’) is defined as a programme whose midpoint occurs between 18:00 and 23:00 (inclusive).
PROFILE
An audience profile shows the proportion of viewers by demographic group. Typical profiles are by Age and Social Grade.
PVR
Personal Video Recorder, allows you to record content to view at a later stage, e.g. Sky+ box. See Timeshift Audience.
DTH
Direct-to-Home - Is a digital satellite service that provides television services direct to subscribers, e.g. Sky platform in the UK.
DTT
Digital Terrestrial Television - Freeview in the UK.
EPG
Electronic Programme Guide, an on-screen channel and programme listing available on digital TV.
ESTABLISHMENT SURVEY
A survey undertaken to determine the ownership of television equipment, and demographic characteristics of the population. The results inform the sample used for the BARB panel.
HD
High-definition – Video which is higher resolution than standard (SD). Please note ITV is the only channel which currently reports HD viewing separately (ITV HD). To calculate ITV Total viewing using Overnights.tv select ITV Total + HD. Please also note BBC HD includes simulcast with BBC channels (BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4).
RATING
See TVR.
REACH
The number or percentage of viewers who have seen a particular item (e.g programme, channel, daypart). The standard reach definition is three consecutive minutes (this is the amount of time someone has to watch the item before they count as a 'viewer'), although other reach criteria can also be used. Reach is cumulative - if someone watches the first episode of a series they will be added to the series reach, but they will not be counted again when they watch the second episode.
SD
Standard-definition television (SDTV) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be high-definition (HD) television.
SHARE
The percentage of the total TV audience watching over a given time period. This can be applied to channels, programmes or time periods. For example, an All Individuals share of 40% for EastEnders means that 40% of all the people watching TV during the time EastEnders was on were watching EastEnders.
SOCIAL GRADE (SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUP)
A classification of household status used in UK, based on the occupation of the Chief Income Earner in TAM panel households. The social grades are: AB - higher (A) or intermediate (B) managerial, administrative; C1 - supervisory or clerical, and junior managerial, administrative or professional; C2 - skilled manual workers; D - semi-skilled and unskilled workers; E - state pensioners, casual or unskilled workers.
HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD
The household member who either owns the property; is responsible for paying the rent; has use of the home as a result of his/her job; or is related to the owner or main tenant (where the owner or main tenant is not a regular member of the household).
HOURS/MINUTES OF VIEWING
The amount of TV watched by a particular audience category, generally expressed as an average over a given time period (e.g. average of 50 minutes per day).
HOUSEWIFE (BARB TERM)
The household member who is responsible for the household duties. A housewife may be male or female, and there is only one housewife per household.
IMPACTS
A measure of viewing to advertisements. One impact is equivalent to one viewer watching one 30-second advertising spot.
INDIVIDUALS
In UK audience research, this is all viewers aged 4+. Some countries use different definitions.
SIMULCAST
Is the broadcasting of content across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. An example of this would be BBC HD, the channel simulcasts selective transmissions (titles such as Top Gear and Doctor Who) for BBC channels (e.g. BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4).
SPOT
An individual occurrence of an advertisement.
SVOD
Subscription Video On Demand such as Disney+ or Netflix.
TAM
Television Audience Measurement.
TERRESTRIAL TV
Mode of broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables. The term is still used to refer to the channel group BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, now also referred to as Network in BARB terms.
TIMESHIFT AUDIENCE
The playback audience using VCR or PVR. In the UK, playback audience is added into the Consolidated Audience provided it occurs within 163 hours of the original transmission.
'TOTAL' CHANNELS
Channels with a timeshift variant (e.g. Channel 4 and Channel 4 +1) are usually available as a 'Total' channel as well.For example, Channel 4 Total will combine the ratings of a programme shown on Channel 4 with its ratings on Channel 4 +1 an hour later. The audience figures are added together, so if the programme achieved an audience of 400,000 on Channel 4 at 9pm and 50,000 on Channel 4+1 at 10pm, the audience for Channel 4 Total would be 450,000.The Share figure is calculated using the industry standard of dividing the combined programme audience by total television viewing in the 9pm slot. All schedule information (including start times) on a 'Total' channel will be the same as the primary (non-timeshift) channel, e.g. the Channel 4 Total schedule will be the same as the Channel 4 schedule.Please note ITV is the only channel which currently reports HD viewing separately (ITV HD). To calculate ITV Total viewing using Overnights.tv you need to select ITV Total + HD.
TOTAL TV
The average number of all the viewers in a particular demographic who are watching TV at a particular time.
TVR
Television Rating. This is the audience of a programme or daypart expressed as a percentage of the population as a whole. For examples, an Adults 16-34 TVR of 20% for EastEnders means that 20% of all 16-34's living in UK television households watched that programme.
UNIVERSE
The total population of a particular viewing category, usually expressed in 000s. BARB Universes are based on television homes. For example, the network universe for ABC1 women is the total number of ABC1 women living within television households in the UK.
VIEWER HOUR
One viewer hour is equivalent to one viewer watching one hour. Programme viewer hours are calculated by multiplying the Audience (in 000s) by the programme's duration (in hours).
VOD
Video on Demand. Streaming services such as iPlayer, Netflix and Amazon.