Configuring Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings

• This Instant TV Channel help article only applies to Custom SDK Roku channels. Nielsen DAR (Digital Ad Ratings) is automatically supported in Direct Publisher Roku channels.
• You must be authorized by Roku before using Nielsen DAR with your Custom SDK Roku channel. Please contact Roku, Nielsen or for additional information. By enabling Nielsen DAR in your Roku channel, you agree to these terms and conditions provided by Roku.
• Your Instant TV Channel account Developer Mode must be set to Advanced in order to view or change Nielsen DAR related settings. You can change the Developer Mode from the Instant TV Channel Account page.
• Your channel must be a Commercial channel type. Free and Unlimited channel types do not support Nielsen DAR.
• Your channel must either be newly created, or be at Update #305 or higher in order to use Nielsen DAR with your Roku channel.

Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings provides a comprehensive, next-day view of your ad performance in a way comparable to Nielsen TV ratings. In the context of a Roku channel, Nielsen DAR provides additional value to your RAF video advertisements and may increase your advertising revenue. If you are not a Nielsen DAR customer, you may not receive reports on DAR campaigns.

The Roku implementation of Nielsen DAR embeds information about the specific video item, such as genre, name, and runtime, into the VAST requests for video ads in your channel. In addition to the genre settings, Nielsen DAR requires an accurate Title parameter and Length parameter for each video in order to function correctly. When using Nielsen DAR the Title parameter for each video should consistently reflect the program (movie title or series name), and should not uniquely identity episodic content.

Examples:
    "The Price is Right"
    "Leave It To Beaver"
    "Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow"

To enable Nielsen DAR in your Roku channel please perform the following steps:

1. Set the Theme RAFNielsenEnabled parameter to "True".
2. If Nielsen has provided you with your own App ID, enter it into the Theme RAFNielsenAppId parameter, otherwise use the default Roku App ID "P2871BBFF-1A28-44AA-AF68-C7DE4B148C32".
3. The Theme RAFGenreMacroSource parameter should be set to "Ad Genre Tags" or "Categories".
   • If set to "Ad Genre Tags" then each ad must specify a valid Roku genre in its Tags parameter.
   • If set to "Categories" then each video item must specify a valid Roku genre in its Categories parameter.
4. The Theme RAFNielsenGenreDefault and Content NielsonGenre parameters are not currently used.
5. Valid Roku genres are:
   • Action
   • Adventure
   • Animated
   • Ballet
   • Biography
   • Children
   • Comedy
   • Comedy drama
   • Crime drama
   • Cuisine
   • Dark comedy
   • Docudrama
   • Documentary
   • Drama
   • Entertainment
   • Fantasy
   • Historical drama
   • Horror
   • Martial arts
   • Music
   • Musical
   • Musical comedy
   • Mystery
   • Performing arts
   • Romance
   • Romantic comedy
   • Science fiction
   • Special
   • Suspense
   • Talk
   • Theater
   • Thriller
   • Travel
   • War
   • Western
6. A current list of valid Roku genres can be found at https://developer.roku.com/docs/developer-program/advertising/integrating-roku-advertising-framework.md.

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Need help with monetizing your Roku channel using video advertisements? See Placing Advertisements in your Roku Channel for all the details!

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