LPM GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Demographics – Audience breakdown based on various characteristics such as age, sex, income, education, etc. (Abbr: Demos)

Diary – A form on which a sample of respondents is asked to keep a written record of TV viewing or radio listening.

Household – An occupied housing unit. An individual or group of individuals occupying a house, apartment, group of rooms, or single room.

Households Using Television (HUT) – The percentage of all television households in a survey area with one or more sets in use during a specific time period. The sum of the average ratings for a given time period will sometimes be higher than the HUT number because of households viewing multiple programs at the same time. If a household is watching two programs, it is counted toward each program rating but only once toward a HUT number.

In-Tab – In a research sample, the number of households or persons supplying useable information for reports or special tabulations. In-tab is usually expressed as a percent of the sample supplying usable information on an average day.

Meter – Any automatic recording device which, when connected to a television set, will monitor the tuning status of that TV set (set on/off, time, duration and channel).

Overnights – Local metered-market ratings service of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) in which household ratings and shares are provided to clients the morning following the day or evening of telecast.

People Meter – An electronic metering device attached to a TV set to measure tuning status (set on/off, channel, time, and duration of tuning) as well as demographic data (who is watching). Household members and their guests push buttons to identify themselves. The People Meter is used by Nielsen Media Research to measure nationwide audience measurement in the U.S. and Canada. (See also, Audimeter)

Persons Using Television (PUT) – The percentage of persons using television at a given time. May be qualified by demographic group.

Replicate – A smaller version of the full sample. The full sample is selected from the DMA universe, based on a specific sample design. Smaller samples are then selected from the full sample, using that same sample design. These smaller samples are called replicates. Replicates are utilized to achieve a representative sample prior to installation of the full sample, which in turn allows reporting of estimates prior to installation of the full sample (in this case referred to as our Preliminary Data Period).

Sample – One or more elements (individuals or households) selected from a universe to represent that universe.

Sample Characteristics – Representation of demographics within the sample such as age, sex, income, education, etc.

Sample Size – The number of households or individuals selected for a research sample.

Sample Performance Indicator (SPI) – an aggregate measure of sample quality based on the three key individual measures of sample quality: installed rate, cooperation rate and intab rate. SPI is calculated by the dividing the number of intab basic households by the number of eligible housing units issued to Field for recruitment (an example of an ineligible housing unit is a vacant housing unit, or a household with zero TVs).

Universe – The population chosen for research study. Universe estimates are the estimated number of actual households or people from which the sample will be taken and to which data from the sample will be projected.

Zero Cell – A phenomenon that occurs when there is household tuning in the meter, but no corresponding diary entries for the same channel and time. As a result of this, during meter and diary integration, a zero cell occurs in the audience estimates.