Currency for How Media Actually Works Today
Incoming DDEI Data Feed Specifications, Minimum (Client to Rentrak)
LocationThe file should be uploaded to Rentrak’s FTP server. FTP login information will be provided separately
FrequencyThe file should be transmitted to Rentrak on a weekly basis once all data has been received for the last complete week or at the latest by the Friday following the close of the week.
The file should contain all data for the last complete week (Monday to Sunday) plus the previous 11 consecutive weeks.
CountriesCountries are reported in ISO 3166-1 Alphas-3 code format. Rentrak is only expecting either CAN for Canada or USA for the United States of America.
File FormatThe file should be a text file that is pipe-delimited (|)
Headers The files should contain all headers listed below, in the same format. If an optional field is not able to be populated it should be included and left null.
FilenameUse the naming convention below for the filename:
<studio>_<starting_week_ending_date>_<ending_week_ending_date>_<file_creation_date_time>.txt
For example[clientname]_20130728_20131013_20131013153030.txt
Fields
Field Name
Required
Notes
Country
Y
Country to which the transactions belong. ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 codes
Distributor Title/Series ID
Studio or Network-specific parent ID (e.g., MPM, ISAN, etc.)
Distributor Episode/Item ID
N
Studio or Network-specific SKU / UPC level ID (should not be asset-level; e.g. SD and HD episode transactions should carry the same Distributor Episode/Item ID)
EIDR ID
Title/Series
Name of movie or series (if Television)
Episode Name
Name of episode. Required if item is Television and an individual episode purchase
Season No.
Season number. Required if item is Television
Episode No.
Episode number. Required if item is Television and an individual episode purchase
EST Release Date
Release date for the EST release of the title
IVOD Release Date
Release date for the iVOD release of the title
Release Source
The type of release for a title, acceptable values are as follows: DTV – Direct to Video THR – Theatrical TV - Television OTH – Other
Week
Week-ending date, e.g., 20111113
Transactions
Number of transactions occurring during week
Retail Revenue
Revenue paid by consumer to licensee
Transaction Type
Transaction type, i.e. iVOD (Rental), EST (Sale)
Resolution
Resolution, i.e., HD, SD, 3D, 4K, UHD
Currency
Currency of reported Retail Revenue
Rating
Rating of the Title (MPAA or TV Rating)
Genre 1
Primary genre of item
Genre 2
Secondary genre of item
Box Office
Box Office generated by item (if Movie)
Movie ExampleUSA|123456||Star Wars: A New Hope||||THR|20111113|2389|27905|Movie|iVOD|SD|Sci-Fi||800
Television ExampleUSA|456789||Mork & Mindy|Mork the Prankster|3|5||20111113|145|5698|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||
Movie and TV Episode/Season NamesTo ensure titles can easily be ingested into industry reporting both movie and TV episode/season names need to be normalized. For example, “World War Z” and “World War Z Unrated” need to be normalized into “World War Z”. This is due to the fact that industry reporting will not be done at the individual “cut’ of a movie or TV episode but at the rolled up view of that movie or TV episode/season
Television Reporting GuidelinesIn order for Rentrak to provide an accurate reporting of television purchases, all content owners must report television purchase data in the same manner.
Season vs. Episode PurchaseWhen a consumer purchases either a full season or an individual episode, these transactions need slightly different reporting. When a studio cannot self-identify a TV Episode purchase from a TV Season purchase we will use the following rules to determine an Episode purchase from a Season purchase:
Season: In order to identify a season, purchase we require the series name, season # and episode name fields to be populated; the episode name should specify that this is a season purchase, e.g. Mork & Mindy, Season 1. We also require that the episode number field is blank.
Episode: In order to identify an individual episode, purchase we require the series name, season #, episode name and episode # fields to be populated.
Any records not following the format for a series or individual episode will be assumed to be a movie.
Example Records:TV Series: USA|456789||Mork & Mindy| |3|||20111113|145|5698.98|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||TV episode: USA|456789||Mork & Mindy|Mork the Prankster|3|5||20111113|1|4.99|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||
Full Season Purchases – Complete Season or Current Season with no prior individual episode purchasesWhen a consumer purchases a full season that has completed its run or a current season but has not purchased any individual episodes of that season, that 1 transaction should be sent for the season purchase, and no individual episode purchases should be sent for full season purchases.
Example Record:USA|456789||Mork & Mindy| |3|||20111113|145|5698.98|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||
Full Season Completion Purchases – Current Season with prior episode purchasesFull season completions are purchases that occur when a customer buys the full season after first purchasing one or more individual episodes; currently this applies to iTunes ‘Complete My Season’ transactions. The expectation is that returns for each previously purchased episode and a season purchase will be transmitted. The return transactions can be aggregated with the total number of episode transactions for that week
Example Records:USA|456789||Mork & Mindy| |3|||20111113|145|5698.98|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||USA|456789||Mork & Mindy|Mork the Prankster|3|5||20111113|-1|-4.99|TV|EST|SD|Comedy||
Movie Reporting GuidelinesWe are requesting that all movies be appended with the production year. This is particularly important for movies that have been remade one or more times (e.g., King Kong (1933), King Kong (1976), King Kong (2005)).
Content that should be excludedFree Content, examples include but are not limited to:
Licensees that should be excluded