Station Information Email Help

From Engineering Client Portal

Station Information Email Help

Approximately every 120 days, Nielsen is required to contact all digital broadcast stations in an attempt to verify that the information we have about those stations is correct.

The email you received contains some of the information that Nielsen keeps on file regarding the broadcast television station(s) for which you are responsible. This document is intended to help with any questions you may have regarding these emails. Please reply to the original email if you have questions about the email, this document, or have suggestions on how to improve any part of this process.

Email Body

The body of the email contains a list of the stations we are asking you, as the primary contact, to review. If you are the primary contact for any other digital stations that are not on this list, please let us know.

Response Links

After reviewing the information in the Station Detail section and if it is all correct, please click the text link "No updates to report". This will automatically create a new reply email to your assigned analyst in Nielsen with the subject line No Updates To Report. Sending this email will tell the analyst that no further contact attempts are needed for this period.

If any of the information in the email is incorrect, incomplete, or has changed since our last contact, please click the text link "Report Update to Nielsen". This will automatically create a new reply email with the subject line Report Update to Nielsen. In the body of the email please provide as many details about the change as possible. IMPORTANT: Please include the date when the change occurred. A Nielsen representative may contact you if additional details are needed.

Pro Tip 1: Save this email. You can use it to let us know about changes at any time between our regularly scheduled contacts. Just click the “Report Update to Nielsen” link. Doing this will “reset the clock” for our next contact with you and will let us make more timely updates to our information.

Pro Tip 2: If the requested changes are too complex or too numerous to describe via email, click the *“Report Update to Nielsen”* and ask that an Nielsen analyst call you.

Station Detail

Below the main body of the email is detailed information regarding the station(s) for which you are the main contact. There are several sections which may appear depending upon how each station distributes its signals to viewers. Please take a few minutes to review the information in each of the sections. Please use the response links mentioned above to let Nielsen know whether or not there are any discrepancies.

Station Information

This section lets you verify the following information about your main digital transmitter:

  • FCC Call Letters - The call sign assigned to your primary transmitter by the FCC.
  • Transmitter Type - Specifies if the transmitter is digital or analog.
  • OTA - The over-the-air channel on which your main transmitter transmits.
  • City Of License - The city and state to which your FCC broadcast license is assigned.
  • County - The county where the city of license is located.
  • DMA - The Nielsen Designated Market Area to which your station is assigned.

Note: If the station is low power and it has an active analog companion, information for that transmitter will also be presented here.

Distributor Contact Information

This section contains information about Nielsen’s contacts at your station. Primary and Secondary Level indicates the people we will contact for verification of station data. When adding new contacts to the list, please include their email address and the contact's primary business phone number.

Host/Share Information

This section appears if your station is either hosting one or more stations on your transmitter or being hosted (guest) on another station's transmitter as a result of the FCC Spectrum Repack which began in September 2018 and ended officially on July 3, 2020.

Please verify that the following information is accurate:

  • Host FCC Call Letters - The FCC Call Sign of the station that owns the transmitter being shared.
  • Guest FCC Call Letters - The FCC Call Sign of the guest station on the transmitter being shared.
  • Guest City Of License - The City of License of the guest station on the transmitter being shared.

Channel And Feed Information

This section contains information Nielsen has on file about the broadcast content and direct to cable feed content distributed by the licensed station.
Note: The information displayed in this section is based upon the content that your station owns, and not the content that is being transmitted by your station tower. For example, if your station tower is a lighthouse transmitter for ATSC 3.0, and is transmitting content from other stations, we are only displaying content for which your FCC license is responsible, including those digital channels being transmitted in ATSC 1 by other stations’ transmitters.

Please verify that the following information is accurate:

  • Channel - This is the name Nielsen uses internally to identify the channel.
  • Type - Can be one of the following:
    • (Analog) Station Tower- Content transmitted on a low power analog transmitter.
    • Digital Channel - Content transmitted on primary digital channels and digital sub-channels.
    • Feed - A direct feed provided to cable or other MVPD that contains unique content in the form of programs or commercials which is not available over the air.
  • Format - The digital format in which the content is transmitted, NA (analog), HD (High Definition), or SD (Standard Definition).
  • Viewed Call Letters - Also known as the “Screen Bug”, this is the on-screen identifier which can appear in one corner of the screen to indicate what station, channel, and/or network the viewer is watching.
  • Nielsen Call Letters - The code assigned by Nielsen to identify channels in some local reports. Call letters are only assigned to channels which meet certain criteria as defined in Nielsen’s Local Reference Supplement.
  • Language - English, Spanish, or Other.
  • Pub Affil - Also known as “Published Affiliation”, this is the abbreviation used to identify the channel’s affiliation to a broadcast network which is published in Nielsen’s local station reports or lack of affiliation (IND or “Independent”).
  • Non Pub Affil - Also known as “Non-Published Affiliation”, this is the abbreviation used to identify content belonging to providers that are not published in Nielsen’s local station reports but are tracked for identification purposes.

Simulcast Information

This section appears if one or more of your stations’ channels are either:

  • Simulcasted on another channel on this station.
  • Simulcasted on a channel belonging to another station.
  • Simulcasting a channel belonging to another station.

In this context, simulcast means that 100% of the originating channel’s programs and commercials are simultaneously being rebroadcast on another channel. Viewing credit will either be given to the originator or one of the simulcasting stations.
Note: This section does not include ATSC 3 format simulcasts on another station’s lighthouse transmitter.

Please verify that the following information is accurate:

  • Originator - The channel whose programs and commercials are being rebroadcast.
  • Simulcast By - The channel simultaneously rebroadcasting the originator’s programs and commercials.
  • OTA - The over-the-air channel of the “Simulcast By’ station.
  • City of License - The FCC designated city of license of the “Simulcast By” station.
  • DMA - The Nielsen Designated Market Area of the “Simulcast By” station.

Parent/Satellite Information

This section appears if one or more of your stations’ channels are either:

  • The parent of the channel(s) belonging to other stations.
  • A satellite of a channel belonging to another station.


In this context, a satellite station is a full or low-power broadcast television station that simultaneously retransmits a portion or all of another broadcast television station’s programming and commercials. Nielsen reports these differently than simulcasts. Additional information on parent/satellite reporting is available upon request.

Please verify that the following information is accurate:

  • Parent Channel - The channel whose programs and commercials are being rebroadcast.
  • Satellite Channel - The channel simultaneously rebroadcasting the Parent Channel’s programs and commercials.
  • City of License - The FCC designated city of license of the Satellite Channel.
  • Total/Partial - Indicates that 100% (Total) or less (Partial) of the originating channel’s programs and commercials are simultaneously being rebroadcast on a channel belonging to another station.

Translator Information

This section appears if your stations’ channels are boosted by transmitters licensed as translators. It displays each originating channel and the translator channel which is boosting it.

Please verify that the following information is accurate:

  • Originator - The channel whose content is being boosted.
  • Boosted By - The translator channel boosting the originator.
  • OTA - The over-the-air channel of the translator.
  • City of License - The FCC designated city of license of the translator.
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