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Channel-Specific Modeling Considerations

Different advertising channels require specific modeling approaches due to their unique characteristics, infrastructure, and consumption patterns. This document outlines the modeling considerations for Linear TV and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) channels, which share some common elements but also have distinct measurement requirements.

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Linear TV

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Definition and Scope

We classify Linear TV as content that is transmitted via traditional broadcasting methods and follows a predetermined programming schedule.

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Boundaries of Measurement

The Scope3 Linear TV model focuses on estimating emissions coming from the distribution (broadcasting) and consumer viewing of television content and advertising.

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Emissions Calculation Methodology

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Corporate Emissions

See Corporate Emissions

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Broadcast Signal Emissions

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Encoding & Multiplexing

In A comparison of the carbon footprint of digital terrestrial television with video-on-demand the BBC estimated that their encoding & multiplexing facility required a power draw of 400kW to encode TV content for their 24 channels.

We use this estimate to derive that it takes an average power draw of 16.7kW to encode and multiplex TV content for one channel (no matter the number of viewing households). For TV networks and/or channels where actual power usage data is available, we use those values instead of the average.

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Signal Transmission

Energy Use

For each TV broadcast distribution method we consider a fixed energy consumption required to broadcast the signal no matter the number of viewing households.

Different TV broadcast distribution methods have varying power efficiency in different countries but for now we do not differentiate between countries.

For each TV distribution method we have derived power draw estimates from annual energy consumption, either from primary sourced energy consumption data shared with Scope3 by network operators or from the BBC paper.

Once again, for TV networks and/or channels where actual power usage data is available, we use those values instead of the above defaults.

Embodied Emissions

In the absence of data specific to each TV distribution method, we utilize our estimates of the embodied emissions as the fixed Internet network (0.00000443 gCO2e per kb) to derive the embodied emissions of each distribution method per second, assuming 6Mbps per transmitter per channel, across 1000 transmitters.

embodied_emissions_gco2e_per_second = 0.00000443 gCO2e/kb * 1000 transmitters * 6000 kbps/channel = 27 gCO2e/second/channel

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Distribution Method Usage

The prevalence of each TV distribution method varies by TV network and geographically. For example, in France OTA/DTT and IPTV are the most widely used distribution methods in terms of households, whereas in Germany satellite is the most prevalent method. We apply a country-specific ratio of distribution methods for major markets, and use a global average for other countries.

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Household Equipment Emissions

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Energy Consumption

We consider some household equipment “passive”, meaning that they do not require any power to receive the broadcast signal, and others “active”.

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Embodied Emissions

Similarly to how we model consumer devices (see Consumer Devices), we estimate Production Energy per Use Second (PEPS) for each and every piece of household equipment.

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Summary

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TV Viewing Emissions

We follow the same methodology as described in Consumer Devices, accounting for both use phase (energy consumption) and embodied emission (production & disposal).

We adapt the “synthetic TV system” for Linear TV accordingly:

• we don’t include set-top-boxes (STBs) or decoders as they are already accounted for as part of household equipment required for TV content and ad distribution.
• we keep the assumption from Urban et Al that 7% of televisions come with a sound bar.

This results in the following TV system:

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Impression Calculation

If TV impressions are not provided as model input, but unique reach and average frequency are, we assume a co-viewing factor of 1.5 to estimate the number of televisions - aligning with published ranges from TV audience measurement organizations across major markets.

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Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH)

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Definition and Scope

Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) refers to digital displays used for advertising in public spaces, such as billboards, transit displays, and retail screens. Unlike Linear TV, DOOH screens are owned or leased by media owners who have direct control over their operation and maintenance.

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Boundaries of Measurement

DOOH screens, like consumer devices, require energy to display an ad. Energy consumption during the use phase is in fact the highest source of emissions. However, on the contrary to consumer devices, billboards are owned or leased by media owners who therefore have a high level of operational control over the screen attributes that influence embodied and energy related emissions (venue category, manufacturer, model, size, location and positioning, operating hours, brightness settings etc…). For that reason, we are including emissions from screens’ energy usage and production to “media distribution”.

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Emissions Calculation Methodology

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Screen Emissions

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Embodied Emissions

Coming soon

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Energy Consumption

On the contrary to consumer device emissions, we have found no credible research paper describing the power draw of large digital billboards. As such, we estimate for individual screens based on a variety of input data sources (listed in order from most accurate to least accurate):

• Electricity metres installed on the screens themselves and monitoring power draw in near real-time.
• Power bills received by media owners on a monthly, quaterly or yearly basis, for a group of or for individual screens.
• Technical specifications from screen manufacturers like Daktronics, Samsung or Panasonic. We have found that these often document maximum power draw (instead of average power draw), which can lead to an over-estimation of energy consumption.
• Extrapolation based on physical dimensions and one of the above data point for screens from the same media owner.
• Extrapolation based on physical dimensions and venue type, off the back of data for 500k+ screens kindly provided to us by early partners (including DOOH programmatic platform Hivestack and DOOH media owners JCDecaux ANZ, Go Media and Lumo).

When no screen attribute or energy data is available to us for a given screen, we estimate the power draw of that screen to be “the 80th percentile” amongst screens that media owner and/or venue category and/or country (based on statistical relevance). This approach aims to incentivize more media owners to share power draw data with us and the wider advertising industry.

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Corporate Emissions

See Corporate Emissions

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Ad Selection Emissions

On the contrary to other digital channels, in DOOH no standard like ads.txt exist to allow DOOH media owners’ to disclose the vendors used in their monetization waterfall, making mapping the ad tech graph more difficult. We are currently developping alternative ways for DOOH media owners to share this information with us. Until then, ad selection emissions will be considered 0.

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Creative Data Transfer Emissions

See Emissions from Data Transfer

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Screen Disposal Emissions

To be discussed.

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Additional Considerations

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Impression Multiplier

One key difference between the digital out-of-home channel and others is its one-to-many nature, meaning that most likely one ad play can be viewed by multiple individuals around the screen. For this reason, our modelling is done “per play” and translated to “per impression” through the use of a screen specific average impression multiplier provided by partners (media owners and platforms).

When no impression multiplier data is provided to us for a given screen, we once again estimate that value to be the 80th percentile amongst screens that media owner and/or venue category and/or country (based on statistical relevance).

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Renewable Energy Usage

To be discussed.