A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

V

VAI
Abbreviation of Visibility Adjusted Impact.

Validation
The validation of audience or readership claims obtained by one method via another thought to be more accurate (but which may only be viable in specific conditions).

VCR
Abbreviation of Video Cassette Recorder. A device that electronically records images and sounds onto video cassettes which can also be played back for viewing purposes.

Video Conferencing
Sound and video links that allow people in different locations to engage in a virtual meeting. See

VAC - Visibility Adjusted Contacts
The score of all adults, pedestrian and vehicular, who will see (make eye contact with) a panel over a one week period. It is arrived at by multiplying OTS by the visibility factor for each panel and summing the results.

VAC Audience Share
The net audience share of all adults who will see (make eye contact) each panel over a one week period.

Vehicular VAC '000s
The total number of VAC's per week for drivers and passengers summed over all panels.

Visibility Index
Total VAC's expressed as a % of total OTS.

Whiteboard.
Video On Demand
A pay per view facility offered by some digital television providers to households where a subscriber can request from a list of videos a movie that can be seen at any time and will start immediately. Some of the systems have the ability to offer VCR type functions such a pause, rewind, and fast-forward. See Subscribers, Impulse Pay Per View, Near Video On Demand and Pay-Per-View.

Virus
A programme that is passed to one computer to another via infected files. Viruses can potentially cause great damage to a computer but can be prevented by installing computer anti-virus software. There are many types of viruses.

Visibility Adjusted Impact (VAI)
The amount of people who view a poster site. VAIs use computer experiments to measure eye movement when passing a site and are calculated by measuring this information against the gross number of people who pass the site. The better the panel, the closer the VAI to the gross.

Visual Clutter
The level of distraction (usually associated with posters or printed media) that draws attention away from the advertising message e.g. a poster against a background of trees has less distractions than a poster in a busy high street. (Existing experimental evidence suggests that this can be at least as important as whether the poster is solus or shares the site with other panels, which is another aspect of clutter).

Volume Discount
A discount based on the volume of business/expenditure booked by an advertiser in a calendar year.

W

Walled Garden
On the Internet this refers to a browsing environment that controls which Web sites a user can access. This facility is often used to stop children coming into contact with adult content through the use of password controls.
A walled garden also refers to Internet, digital television and mobile phone operator services that are only made available to their subscribers. See Subscribers.
Web, The
The World Wide Web or WWW consists of graphic and text documents published on the Internet that are interconnected through clickable "hypertext" links. A Web page is a single document. A Web site is a collection of related documents. The World Wide Web is often confused with the Internet. See Internet for an explanation of how they differ.

Web Based Discussions
Also known as newsgroups or communities of forums. Internet based bulletin boards that allow people to post comments about specific topic. Unlike Internet chat these are not live. See Chat.

Web Enabled
This refers to the facility on digital handsets such as PDA's and mobile phones that allows users to access the Internet using these devices. See Mobile Internet Connection.

Weekly Reach
See Reach.

Weighted Sample
A sample to which all the necessary Sample Weights have been applied. See Weights.

Weighting
Cell weighting is the traditional form of weighting and involves target variables (e.g. sex, age and region) being interlaced to form a matrix of target cells in the population. The sample is analysed into interlacing cells in the same way. A weight is then calculated for each cell to achieve the target for that cell. The overall target may be set to equal the actual sample size (in which case the average weight = 1), or the population size (in which case grossing up is done at the same time as weighting). Cells incurring very high weights can be amalgamated with neighbouring cells to bring the weights down.
Rim weighting looks at each target variable in turn. The sample is weighted to the first variable (e.g. region). Keeping this set of weights, the computer then compares the balance of the sample with the targets for the second variable (e.g. sex). Fresh weights are calculated to correct this, which are multiplied by the first set of weights. This process is then repeated until all the target variables have been covered. At this stage, the weighted sample will not be exactly balanced against any one variable, but the overall balance should be an improvement. The whole process can then be repeated as often as necessary, until the weighted sample reaches a satisfactory level of accuracy or no further improvement is possible. The advantage of rim-weighting is that only the marginal totals are needed for each variable.

Weighting Matrix
See Weighting.

Whiteboard
A video conferencing device that allows users in different location to draw on a shared virtual surface. See Video Conferencing.

Widescreen
This refers to televisions that can have screens that can display pictures with a wider aspect ratio than normal.

Worldwide Readership Symposium
A bi-annual conference run jointly by Ipsos and BMRB to foster the spreading of best practice in readership research. Started in 1981 and held alternately in European and American venues.

World Wide Web (WWW)
See Web, The.

X

XTP
Cross-track projection onto poster sites on London underground sold by CBS

Y

Z

Zapping
Flicking through different TV channels, often to avoid a commercial break.

Zipping
Fast-forwarding through recorded commercials when watching a home-recorded videotape.