Transmission
Getting your advert where it needs to be
Once you have a finished advert, it needs to be sent to all of the stations in your media plan. This can often involve multiple advert versions to be trafficked to multiple destinations, a process that needs to be carefully managed. Space City offer a complete transmission service, taking the stress out of this process and ensuring your advert gets to where it needs to be in good time for its first air date.
The Transmission Process
There are 5 key stages to getting your commercial on air:
Every version of your ad gets a unique clock number - a 13-character mix of letters and numbers. This helps broadcasters keep track of exactly which ad is which, especially when there are multiple versions. Think of it as your ad’s fingerprint.
Next, we fill out a Transmission Order Form. This tells the broadcasters exactly when, where, and how often the ad should air. It includes all the important info like the clock number, dates, time slots, and which channels it’s going to.
Before we upload anything, the ad needs to meet specific technical specs. This includes things like frame rate, audio levels, aspect ratio, and file format. Making sure everything’s set up correctly here avoids delays later on.
Now we upload the ad to the delivery platform (usually via a service like Peach or Honeycomb). Once uploaded, it goes through a quality check to make sure the file is technically perfect - no glitches, dropouts, or formatting issues.
Every successful DRTV campaign starts with a good brief. We need to agree exactly what the commercial is trying to achieve, what the key messages are, and what features or product benefits are most likely to maximise response. A brief doesn’t need to be long – typically 2-3 pages maximum.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you need any help or advice about transmission, please get in touch!
Yes! “Playout” is now a more accurate term, because the digital files for each commercial are sent from one place to another electronically. But until about 6 years ago, commercials were distributed physically; this meant making a copy of each ad on videotape and sending it by despatch rider to the required station.
No. You only need to send a playout of your commercial to each “transmission site”. So, for example, all the Channel 4 channels (Channel 4, Film 4, E4, More 4, etc.) are transmitted from the same place, and they can all share one transmission copy.
Very few adverts are made just for showing in cinemas. Most are produced primarily for a TV audience, although they may be adapted in various ways for big screen viewing. Cinema ads have to be separately cleared by organisations called the CAA and the BBFC. It is likely that a commercial made for TV will have to be technically converted to the required Digital Cinema Package (DCP) format, but this is not an expensive process. Space City can arrange this for you!
The technical requirements for transmitting ads in different countries vary hugely. So, in the same way that we adapt foreign commercials for transmission in the UK, it is usually easier to find a production company in the country you wish to advertise in to make that conversion; that company will be more likely to be able to configure your commercial to the required technical format.
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