The OzTAM Television Ratings Guide provides you with tools to understand the OzTAM ratings service and ratings information.

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TELEVISION RATINGS GUIDE

The Rating Process

An overview of how the rating system works (pdf, 196k).

Terms & Definitions

Common terminology (pdf, 191k) used in the television ratings industry.

Survey Calendars

Calendar of the survey period for ratings.
Survey Calendar 2009 (pdf, 172k)
Survey Calendar 2008 (pdf, 332k)
Survey Calendar 2007 (pdf, 541k)

Please email info@oztam.com.au for Survey Calendars prior to these.

Coverage Maps

Coverage maps setting out the regions measured for television viewing behaviour.
Metropolitan Total TV (State by State) (pdf, 920k)
Metropolitan Total TV (pdf, 192k)
National Subscription TV (pdf, 200k)

Household Lifecycle Categories

OzTAM has constructed eight mutually exclusive Household Lifecycle categories (pdf, 76k) that form part of the standard demographic list available for analysis.

Occupation Classifications

The socio economic variable has been renamed occupation, to reflect the actual occupation groupings that the categories represent. Occupation classifications (pdf, 92k)

Highest Education Categories

OzTAM has constructed six mutually exclusive Highest Education categories (pdf, 51k) that form part of the standard demographic list available for analysis.

Subscription Television Events Time Offset Map (ETOM)

OzTAM has introduced an Events Time Offset Mapping (pdf, 178k) system that enables Subscription TV channel events to be mapped back to their local broadcast times by time zone, enhancing Subscription TV channel program based analyses.

Subscription Television Channels

A complete list of all Subscription TV channels (pdf, 238k), detailing those available in the OzTAM reporting system.

Universe Estimates

The Universe Estimates are prepared annually and represent the total number of people within specified demographic groups in Australia.

Metropolitan Television

Universe Estimates (UEs) 2008 (pdf, 514k)
Universe Estimates (UEs) 2007 (pdf, 590k)
Universe Estimates (UEs) 2006 (pdf, 592k)

Subscription Television

Universe Estimates (UEs) 2008 (pdf, 636k)
Universe Estimates (UEs) 2007 (pdf, 619k)
Universe Estimates (UEs) 2006 (pdf, 580k)

Please email info@oztam.com.au for Universe Estimates prior to these.

Complete Television Ratings Guide

The complete Television Ratings Guide (pdf, 5MB) encompasses all of the above information.

Sampling Variance

OzTAM's audience estimates are based on a sample and hence are subject to sampling variance. That is, the extent to which audience estimates vary when obtained with a sample, as opposed to those based on the entire population.

OzTAM's Sampling Variance calculator will assist users in assessing the sampling variance of audience estimates based on single minutes, 1/4 hours and half hour averages.

The Sampling Variance calculator is available to subscribers only.