Network Television

The Network Television Service provides commercial occurrence and expenditure information for five terrestrial English-language broadcast networks and as of August 2022, twelve English-language digital multicast networks. East Coast satellite feeds of each broadcast & digital multicast network are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

In addition, broadcast networks’ affiliate stations are monitored in their local market, and this is used as a double-check on the network’s commercials. The scope of our digital multicast network coverage is limited to national clearances. The identification of local affiliate clearances with Spot TV markets for digital multicast networks is unavailable.

West Coast satellite feeds of several broadcast networks are monitored to identify unique ad occurrences not appearing in the East Coast feeds (denoted by a “P” moniker at the end of their call letters). Expenditure estimates and ratings are not reported for this activity.

Expenditure Data

Effective with January 2018 data, expenditures for Network TV advertising are primarily derived from data obtained through the SQAD NETCOSTS system. Vivvix receives a monthly report detailing the average cost of a 30-second spot broken out by network, daypart, program category, program sub-category and day of week. The report is based on actual spot purchases made by NETCOST contributors and reflects negotiated costs, the actual weighting of upfront and scatter buys, and the incidence of no-charge spots.

Vivvix supplements NETCOSTS data with program costs provided by contributing networks. These additional inputs are used to transform program sub-category costs from NETCOSTS into modeled estimates of specific program costs.

Prior to January 2018, Network TV expenditures were derived from 30-second cost information supplied by contributing networks whenever possible. In the absence of network-supplied ad costs, program-level cost information from contributing media agencies was used.

(Caution: Expenditure estimates produced by these two methodologies are not directly comparable, thus causing trending disruption).

Vivvix normally applies a single average cost to all telecasts of a program during a given month. Source data sometimes indicates special costs for certain program telecasts or commercial pods within a program. Under these circumstances Vivvix may apply specific costs to the ad occurrences in the designated telecasts or pods.

The calculated 30-second cost is initially applied to each commercial occurrence. For commercials longer or shorter than 30 seconds, a conversion factor is then applied to arrive at the reported dollar value for the occurrence.

The factors used are:

Spot Length (seconds) less than 20, 20-40, 41-50, 51-75, 76-105, greater than 105

Factor 0.50, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00, 3.00 ,(length/30)

Ratings Sources

Audience ratings are available from Nielsen Media Research for all networks except for Newsy, as it is not currently measured.

NTI Time period and program ratings are available. If the rating for a unique occurrence is available, then the rating will be based on the unique occurrence and not a multi-day or multi-week average. All ratings are actuals. No estimates are made even when actual rating data is not yet available. All ratings include VCR usage. If a commercial airs on the half-hour, the rating before and after the half-hour will be averaged (A commercial is considered on the half-hour if it airs within two minutes of the hour or halfhour). Vivvix has integrated the “Live”, “Live Plus Same Day” and “Live Plus 7 Day” Time Shifted rating streams. These streams refer to the audience for a given occurrence in relation to the broadcaster airing date and time. The "Live" stream refers to the audience for the live broadcaster airing. The "Live Plus Same Day" stream incorporates the live audience along with any additional audience measured for playback on the same day as the airing. The "Live Plus Seven Days" stream includes the live audience plus the audience measured for playback within one week of the airing.

Commercial Ratings for Network TV are available. Commercial ratings are average ratings for commercial minutes aired within a single program. It is not applicable to the NHTN service.

The following Time-Shifted rating streams are available for Commercial Ratings: