Media Glossary - RTL AdAlliance

It can mean:

•  medium available across many devices

• or a television set, used not just to watch TV but also online services. 

  There are industry discussions on what can be considered as ‘fit-for-TV’ content. 

  Barb, the UK measurement body, is to expand audience measurement to incl. fit-forTV content on video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube. 

  Fit-for-TV includes Editorial input and oversight; Regulatory compliance, or an intention to deliver content that aligns with prevailing regulation; Content that provides a safe and suitable environment for advertisers.

Video content consumed on a TV screen, delivered via an internet connection. This includes TVs directly connected to the internet (Smart TV), as well as hardware that enables a TV to become connected, e.g. TV sticks, games consoles and set-top boxes that are connected to the internet. (IAB definition)

The delivery of content can be via Broadcast or Streaming. Broadcast TV sends the same content to a larger audience simultaneously. 

Streaming services deliver content to viewers on a one-to-one basis. Live broadcasting follows a specific channel's schedule, while live streams can start anytime.

A service that allows viewers to watch video content wherever and whenever they choose, rather than at the scheduled broadcast time.

Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD) is the term used for streaming services offered by traditional TV broadcasters. 

Some are funded by advertising and therefore free to the user (ex. BBCPlayer), other also offer a subscription option with less or no ads (RTL+, ITVX etc.). 

Several BVOD services are enlarging their offer and include audio (e.g. RTL+) or content from 3rd party (ex. Content from Pluto TV on M6+).

A video content service for which the user pays a subscription. Most services offer the choice between lower-tier pricing packages including ads, or an ad-free premium subscription. 

E.g. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video etc

A video content service that is funded by advertising. This includes video services that are free to the user and those that offer a subscription fee as well as showing ads. BVOD services funded by advertising are included in this, but also YouTube etc.

FAST are ad-supported streaming services. They resemble the traditional TV experience, where you would choose a channel and watch whatever is scheduled at the time of viewing. These channels can cover all genres, but movie is the most popular type of content on FASTs. Some are focused on a single program of media franchise, such as Baywatch. Some FAST channels are exclusive to specific platforms, such as Pluto TV or Samsung TV Plus, others are distributed through multiple providers.

The terms Hybrid Video on Demand (HVOD) and Subscription Advertising-Based VOD (SAVOD) have gained popularity to describe the evolution of "classic" VOD platforms towards a mix of paid and free tiers. However, in our marketing decks, we adhere to the classic terminology, focusing on the original definitions of VOD platform types.

An automated approach to buying and delivering TV ads. (IAB definition)

The ability to serve different ads to different audience segments watching the same TV content (IAB definition). 

Real-time ads are targeted on a one-to-one device-level basis, so different households watching the same TV programme are shown personalised ads according to specific criteria, such as demographic profile, viewing behaviour, interests, and location.

Impression: an ad successfully served to a device. The count of an impression means that the ad was downloaded in the player, it does not mean it was viewable by global standards (see ‘viewability’).

To be differentiated from contacts, which are the actual humans exposed to an ad and thus include co-viewing

Cost per mille (= cost per thousand) is the price an advertiser pays for every 1,000 ad impressions or contacts. 

For linear TV the CPM is the cost for a thousand tv contacts whereas for digital the CPM is the cost for a thousand impressions. And 1 TV contact is not equivalent to 1 impression (see above).

Example: If a publisher charges €2,000 for an ad on its website and the ad delivers 200,000 impressions, the CPM is €10 (2,000 ÷ 200,000 × 1,000) – so the advertiser is paying €10 for every 1,000 impressions.

The MRC (Media Ratings Council) in the US has defined a viewability standard for digital video impressions of 100% of the pixels viewable and a minimum two second exposure. That definition has been embraced by Google and Facebook. It is also the base calculation for determining ‘reach’ in the WFA cross-media initiative.

Broadcasters argue a two-second minimum will not be enough to differentiate various forms of video advertising and the impact that they have as a result.

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) describes advertising attentiveness as: “the degree to which those exposed to the advertising are focused on it – ranging from a very brief exposure (or 'scan') that is likely to leave very little memory trace, to intense focus with cognitive and emotional engagement that can lead to enduring recall and impact attitudes and behaviour – both positively and negatively.” 

Attention allows to go beyond the viewability and View-Through-Rate (VTR) metrics and adds a qualitative layer to those campaign performance indicators.

Attention measurement comprises the tools and practices by which brands can measure the duration or quality of attention paid to advertising content.

Several companies including Xpln.ai, lumen, Adelaide, Amplified Intelligence and Realeyes, bring attention measurement tools and methodologies to market.

The current challenge is that there are no industry standards when it comes to measuring attention.

TV Ratings are the percentage of the potential audience who are viewing at a given time. TV ratings (TVRs) can apply to any time, such as one minute, a quarter hour, an individual commercial, a commercial break or a programme.

For a programme or period longer than a minute the rating is the average of all the minutes comprising the period involved.

Channel or Audience Share is calculated by comparing the average minutes viewed for each channel in each period.

GRP measures the size of an audience that an advertisement impacts. Impressions as a percentage of the target audience. It’s expressed as a percentage of the target market. One rating point equals one percent of the population.

If a schedule attained a gross OTS (Opportunity to See) of 200,000 for a target market of 50,000 individuals, it would generate 400 GRPs.

Cost of reaching one GRP: Total Cost / GRP

‘Unique users’ (or unique visitors) is a metric that refers to the number of individuals who have visited a website or web page at least once over a given time period.

The individual is identified by their IP address, their device ID, cookies, or user registration.

Calculated as the total cost of an online ad campaign divided by the number of clicks, cost per click (CPC), also known as pay per click (PPC), is the price an advertiser pays each time a user clicks on an advertisement displayed on a publisher’s website. The CPC can be pre-defined and agreed upon before the campaign commences.

Cost per completed view (CPCV) is the price an advertiser pays for complete views of video ads. In the CPCV pricing model, the ad must be fully played from start to finish, regardless of how long it is, for the advertiser to be billed.

CPCV is calculated as cost / completed video view.

A feature that limits the number of times your Display or Video ads appear to the same person.

Placements are the locations where advertisers choose to run ads on a website, web page, or mobile app, or in video content, or even within an individual ad unit.

Ad retargeting, also known as retargeting or remarketing, is the marketing process in which you target ads to users who have previously engaged with your website or social media platform and haven’t converted to a sale.

The VTR for ‘View-through rate’ measures the rate of individuals exposed to an advertising video (or other types of videos) who complete the video.

It is mainly used for ‘skippable’ video advertising where the exposed individual can interrupt playback to access the main video serving as the advertising medium.

In digital marketing, the click-through rate corresponds to the number of clicks recorded on a clickable element divided by the number of times the element is displayed. If an advertising banner is displayed 1,000 times and clicked 5 times, the click rate is therefore 0.5%.

However, a digital advertising campaign can have branding effects that do not necessarily translate into clicks

The Universe of a target group describes its size.

The audience is the population or target group:

• viewing a TV programme/channel or a selection of TV programmes/channels.
• exposed to an advertisement or advertising campaign.

Audience segments are subgroups of an overall audience, defined via criteria such as demographics (age, gender, income), geolocation, behaviour, interests, purchasing habits, or lifestyle.

Generally used interchangeably with Target Market or Group. However, Target Audience is sometimes used to mean the nearest meaningful approximation to the Target Market or Group specified in the creative brief.

Reach is the total number of ‘unique’ users – or the percentage of the advertiser’s target audience – who have seen an ad at least one time.

For example, if an advertiser’s target audience amounted to 10,000 people, and 5,000 of those people saw the ad at least once, the reach would be 50%.

How many new individuals are exposed to an ad campaign running on a different channel or service. So effectively an uplift of people who had not already seen the advertising campaign.

Number or percentage of individuals that have seen the spot at least once: GRP / OTS.

Index that shows the proximity of your target group to the ad break / campaign / channel / programme in comparison to the total viewers.

Calculation: (Reach in % of target group / reach in % of total viewers) *100

The qualitative aspect of the use of media, print and electronic media in general and individual publications, channels and programmes, describing the relationship of users to each medium.

The number of times a campaign is seen or heard by those who see or hear it at all, expressed over a period.

Average number of times an individual has seen the campaign. Contacts or GRP / Net reach.

A form of promotion where a company associates itself or/and a product with a particular content (TV, radio, print, digital…).