Nielsen Data FAQs

NIELSEN DATA FAQ’S

The purpose of this document is to answer some of the frequently asked questions about Nielsen data.

How does Nielsen send data to Strata?

• TVS Data: Total Viewing Source (TVS), is a 4-week data set. TVS Data includes populations and impressions for both sweep data and monthly LPM. STRATA creates separate DMA and C-DMA surveys from a single DVD, sent to us by Fed Ex.
• LPM Overnights: Local People Meter (LPM) Overnights are downloaded via dialup download using client’s FTP information provided by Nielsen.
• Fusion: The Network (and HUT) impressions for HH are derived from the Arianna spreadsheets, also known as overnights, (they provide ratings, so impressions are back-calculated), which must be provided for each day with a 24-hour duration. The Network (and PUT) Impressions for Demographics come from the National MIT database(s) for the same measurement cycle; Impressions from the MIT are scaled down, according to the percentage of National Population represented by the market in question. The HH and Demographic projections are based on a Wired CDMA Universe. NHI Cable MIT (i.e. National Cable) surveys are downloaded from a Nielsen maintained website.

Who determines the Label or Name of the survey shown in VIEW?

• For TVS and NHI data, the names come straight from Nielsen and cannot be modified. For LCR, we do assign the names, attempting to closely match the Nielsen market name.

How does Strata report Non-Quarter-Hour (LCR – Basics and Expanded
Basics) data and the program names that come with it?

• Nielsen provides us with impression, ratings, shares, and universe estimates (UE’s or populations). We disregard everything except for impressions and UE’s. Ratings and shares are all calculated based on impressions and UE’s.

How does Strata report Time Period (Quarter-Hour) data and the program
names that comes with it?

• The Quarter-hour impressions are either single-week or multi-week averages provided by Nielsen. The programs that aired during the quarter hours determine whether we have single-week quarter-hour impressions for each of individual weeks or an all-week average. If the same program airs for all the weeks in a particular quarter hour, Nielsen provides an all-week average. If the program only runs during that quarter-hour for weeks 1-3, you will receive an average of weeks 1-3 and a set of impressions for the other program that ran during the 4th week. The single-week vs. multi-week average only applies to age related demographics; you always get a weekly impression value for Households. Note that most surveys contain 4 weeks, while some can contain 5 weeks.
• STRATA does index the demographic impressions for individual weeks not provided by Nielsen. If the same program airs for all the weeks in a particular quarter hour, we use the following formula to calculate ratings for age-related demographics for a specific week (using Wk 1 in this example):

All-Wks Avrg Demo Imps  X  Wk 1 HH Imps/All-Wks Avrg HH Imps  =  Wk 1 Demo Imps



The Demographic Impressions for All-Wks Average are 7,819.
The Household Impressions for Week 1 are 13,799.
The Household Impressions for All-Wks Average are 22,846.

7,819 X 13,779/22,846 = 4,715

Therefore, the Week 1 demographic impressions are 4,715.