What Does the Data Mean FAQ

What is ‘% Coverage’?

‘% Coverage’ is the percentage of the U.S. population that can receive a given PTV program during a specified date range. It is usually reported for TV households in the entire country. However, it can be segmented by day of the week, time, geography, and portions of the population. Coverage figures can grow as the queried length of time grows. This is especially true for stand-alone programs, limited series or non-prime time programming.

How is ‘% Coverage’ computed?

TRAC’s coverage is computed using the Nielsen-determined coverage percentage for each TV market which is updated once per year at the start of the new TV season. TRAC uses TiVo schedule data to find markets where selected programs are scheduled. This is first reported for four weeks into the future and is updated as the broadcast date grows closer.

To calculate ‘% Coverage’, each market is counted only once regardless of the number of times the program plays in the market. This means that if multiple stations or channels in a market carry a program, that market is still only counted once in the coverage figure.

Why can’t my program achieve ‘100% Coverage’ on PTV stations?

Simply stated, not every designated television market has a Public TV station. Currently, there are 187 markets out of 210 with public television stations. Maximum Coverage is therefore around 98%. This is subject to change.

Can TRAC Media Services change titles or descriptions in the Carriage database?

No. TRAC cannot change spelling errors and smart copy errors internally. Such changes must come from TiVo. TRAC maintains a relationship with TiVo in that we can request spelling or description errors be remedied. Once an error is fixed on TiVo's side, and TRAC receives the update from TiVo, it will be updated in our database. This process takes at least 48 hours for those changes from TiVo to propagate TRAC’s database.

Can TRAC add titles or dates to Carriage that I provide for my show?

No. TRAC cannot manually add a title to the carriage database, all titles originate from TiVo. We also cannot edit airing dates unless we receive the data from either TiVo or the station.

Why are there title variations? Can these be removed?

Occasionally, there are multiple versions of titles in our database for a variety of reasons. We receive all our titles from TiVo, who in turn has received them all from the various stations that submit their schedules. Some of these stations use an alternate database called the A-List database, in which PTV titles are created but not connected with the regular PTV database. Therefore, we may have two variations of a title, like NOVA.

We cannot delete title variations. We suggest, when using carriage data, to choose all variations of a particular title.

Can I search by NOLA codes?

No. TRAC’s carriage site does not support NOLA code searches.

How far back can I search Carriage?

Our carriage data goes back to 10/20/2005.

Channel Definitions

In the output of many of our carriage reports, there is a tab of Channel Definitions.

Channel Filter Options

What is ‘Market Rank’ (also known as ‘Rank’)?

Markets are ranked each season based on the number of Television Households in their market. The denser the TV HH population, the higher the ranking. All 210 markets are ranked by Nielsen.

Measurement Type: What are Local People Meter (LPM), Metered & RPD Channels/Markets?

Measurement Type indicates how Nielsen collects ratings data in a market (the US is currently split into 210 Designated Market Areas, or DMAs). In the 25 Local People Meter (LPM) Markets, Nielsen’s panelists ‘check in’ to each set allowing for both household and demographic information from viewers. An additional 31 markets use Set-Meters to measure household viewing automatically, while demographic information is collected separately. LPM and Set Meter markets are known collectively as Metered Markets. Markets also include data collection with wearable Personal People Meters and Return Path Data (RPD) or TV tuning data that comes from set-top boxes in cable and satellite subscribers’ homes. Markets outside the US are not measured by Nielsen and fall under "other" in market filters.

Channel Rank: What are Primary & Secondary Channels?

In markets where multiple PTV stations exist, the primary channel is the largest station in the market; and generally the PBS affiliate, running PBS’s common carriage feed. In Atlanta, WGTV (AKA Georgia Public Broadcasting) has long been the primary channel (historically the station has hosted a larger audience for PBS content provided daily) whereas WPBA (AKA Public Broadcasting Atlanta) has been the secondary channel in the Atlanta market. While they run PTV content, they have historically acquired or produced content to subsidize a reduced schedule of PBS programs.

Multicast: What are Main & Sub Channels?

Main and Sub Channels indicate how stations are multicasting their broadcast signal. A station’s Main Channel is the signal that carried the original analog station's programming (now often referred to their HD channel). Sub Channels are either locally scheduled (e.g. Arizona PBS Life), or delivered via national schedules (CREATE, PBS Kids, and World). In New York, WNET DT (channel 13.1 or ‘Thirteen’) is the main channel, WNET DT2 or Kids 13 (is on channel 13.2) and WLIW DT4 or their All Arts channel are examples of Sub Channels.

Broadcast Type: What are Digital & Analog Channels?

As of June 2009, the majority of stations ceased all analog NTSC transmission in favor of digital, ATSC signals. Some channels in rural areas and outside the US still broadcast analog signals. The Channel/Market List at our website contains all available channels and their broadcast type.

Nielsen Reported: What are Reported & Non-Reported Channels?

A reported channel's ratings are tracked by Nielsen and published in Sweep and Overnights data (note - Overnights data is only collected for the 56 metered markets). Main channels are generally reported by Nielsen. Sub Channel ratings are only reported if the station has an agreement with Nielsen to publish these channels. In Carriage, TRAC collects and reports airings for all stations that submit schedules to TiVo. Non-reported channels will not appear in ratings reports.

Signal Type: What are Transmitter & Repeater Channels?

Signal type indicates whether an individual channel originates from the station's main antenna, or a repeater which picks up the signal from the transmitter and re-broadcasts it to an area farther away in the market. In Tucson, KUAT is a transmitter (also known as a parent) while KUAS is a repeater (the child) and rebroadcasts KUAT's signal to increase its range. Nielsen often groups these parent-child relationships for ratings purposes and adds the repeater's audience to the parent, denoting the addition with a plus symbol (KUAT+ = combined ratings for KUAT and KUAS.)

What are All Channels?

This represents all the channels provided by TiVo. All Channels includes areas not measured by Nielsen (outlying U.S. territories) and channels in measured areas that are not reported by Nielsen (see non-reported channels below). Currently, TRAC Media Services receives schedules for all channels reporting PBS as their primary or secondary affiliation as well as any independent stations which run at least some public television content.

What is a Daypart?

A daypart is a specific portion of a week for which ratings are reported. For example, in the Eastern Time Zone prime time covers Monday through Sunday 8-11pm and early fringe includes Monday through Sunday 5-8pm.

What are the Time Periods for each Daypart?

What is duration?

The duration is the length of the program expressed in minutes.

What is T.Z.?

T.Z stands for Time Zone

What is a Market?

The United States is divided into 210 DMAs, Designated Market Areas, or Markets (all the same). It is a geographic area, made up of counties, that represents specific television markets as defined by and updated annually by the Nielsen Company. Each market has a percent coverage and universe estimates (TV households and demographics) specific to that market.

What are telecasts?

Telecasts are also referred to as airings – it is the number of times a program is being aired within the confines of your query parameters.

What is a Quick List?

A Quick list is the list of your programs available to you to choose from instead of using the search feature in your reports. If you have more than 25 programs, you will not have a Quick List.

What is My Stations?

The My Stations feature, found under the MY ACCOUNT drop down, allows you to create a specific station set to apply in your carriage queries, where applicable. This link will show a tutorial on how to create it.

What is My Shows and how do I create it?

The My Shows feature, found under the MY ACCOUNT drop down, allows you to create a specific program set and/or program episode set to apply in your carriage queries where applicable. This link will show a tutorial on how to create it.

If you did not find what you were looking for please email TRAC@tracmedia.com for further clarification.


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