Technical Specifications for Television Commercial Delivery
Technical Specifications
These technical specifications apply to commercials provided to CBC for distribution on the Television platform.
| TIME CODE | DURATION | AUDIO | VIDEO |
| 09:59:57:00 | 2 sec | Silence | Slate |
| 09:59:59:00 | 1 sec | Silence | Black |
| 10:00:00:00 | --- | Commercial | Commercial |
| --- | 1 sec | Silence | Black |
* If possible, please submit creative without Bars and Tones off the top.
| HD ESSENCE - SPECIFICATIONS | |
| HD Video | 1920x1080, 4:2:2 with 8/10 quantizing (per SMPTE ST 274:2008) |
| Constant 29.97 frames/sec interlaced, upper field first | |
| Safe Title Zone: 90% height and width of the full HD picture | |
| Colour space in compliance with Rec. ITU-R BT.709 | |
| Audio | PCM, 48kHz, 24 bits, -2dBTP Max. |
| Tracks 1&2 + 7&8 with audio on, 3-6 open but muted. If Described Video is available, it must be on tracks 7&8. | |
| Track allocation 5.1: 1:L, 2:R, 3:C, 4:LFE, 5:Ls, 6:Rs, 7:DV-L, 8:DV-R Track Allocation Stereo: 1:LT, 2:RT, 3:Unused (Silence), 4:Unused (Silence), 5:Unused (Silence), 6:Unused (Silence), 7:DV-L, 8:DV-R |
|
| Integrated commercial loudness: -24LKFS +/-1LU (measured using ITU-R BS.1770-3 algorithm) | |
| Described Video (DV) | If no DV is available, a stereo mix of the commercial is required on tracks 7 and 8 |
| Lip Sync | 1 field maximum tolerable sound and picture misalignment |
| Time Code | Present, drop frame mode, continous (from start to end) |
| Closed Caption | • The CC Track shall have the same duration as the video track • The CC must be formatted for a 29.97fps Drop Frame Time Code • ***If using Pop-On closed captioning, please assure first line is Paint-On so our encoder can capture all captioning accurately.*** |
| FILE WRAPPER | VIDEO CODING | AUDIO CODING | TIME CODING | CLOSED CAPTION |
| MXF (.mxf) **Preferred Format** |
(HD) XD CAM HD422 @ 50Mbps (SD) IMX50 (MPEG50 SD in AVID) |
PCM | Per SMPTE ST 377-1:2011 |
CEA-608 type encapsulated into CEA-708 type data, carried in ANC per SMPTE ST 436:2006, 8 bit coding |
| Quick Time (.mov) | (HD) XD CAM HD422 @ 50Mbps (SD) Apple ProRes |
PCM | Present | Shall be carried in the .mov file |
Note: CBC/Radio Canada inserts the AFD value in the HD commercial file such that the legacy 4:3 receivers automatically select the letterbox display.
The subjective image and audio quality of commercials should be excellent (imperceptible impairments). The dialogue must remain intelligible throughout the entire commercial.
To prevent Closed Captioning from being clipped at the start of the commercial try any of the following:
Have the first caption paint on instead of pop on.
Use a period as the first Caption at the start of the video for a few frames.
Offset the first caption by at least one second to allow enough lead time for the Closed Captioning.
Please also note that captioning should have one or two lines on screen at any given time.
We should rarely see captions with three lines.
Captioning must be limited to four lines maximum on screen at any given time.
Closed Captioning should have a mix of upper and lower case characters, and should not be in all caps.
Whenever possible, please position captions to prevent obscuring important visual elements such as on-screen text, graphics, facial features, or other critical visual information.
| Title | Title or Description of Commercial |
| Advertiser | Name of Advertiser |
| Commercial ID | Unique Identifier of commercial (see below) |
| Duration | The length of the commercial |
| Product/Service | The product or brand in the commercial |
| Telecaster Number | All spots require a ThinkTV issued telecaster approval number. This is imperative to add to assure your commercial doesn’t miss its first air-date. Please click here for instructions on how to submit commercial material to ThinkTV for telecaster approval: ThinkTV Telecaster Clearance Registration & Submission |
| Closed Captioning | Indicate if the spot is closed captioned |
| Notes | Any additional info that would be helpful |
| CHARACTERS | NAMING CONVENTION |
| 1-4 | Prefix name of Advertiser |
| 5-8 | Year material was sent |
| 9-11 | User generated |
| 12 | Use "T" for Television |
| 13 | Use "E" for English, "F" for French |
| 14-15 | Use "HD" for HD material |
| 16-17 | Use "TR" if the spot is a Tech Rev |
I.E. First spot for John's Auto Shop sent in 2017 - an Commercial ID would be labeled as: JOHN2017001TEHD
The file name must be alphanumeric.
The name should not contain any accent, special character or space.
The maximum length of the complete file name should not exceed 40 characters.
We cannot edit any commercials so all material must be sent with one piece of creative per upload, and any material changes need to be sent as a new spot with a new Commercial ID.
As a general rule, a new house number is created whenever a new Commercial ID is delivered.
Every new Commercial ID, including changes of any video or audio in commercial, requires a new telecaster number. Please click here for instructions on how to submit commercial material to ThinkTV for telecaster approval: ThinkTV Telecaster Clearance Registration & Submission.
If the Commercial ID hasn't changed, we treat the spot as a duplicate unless otherwise instructed.
| REVISION | REQUIREMENTS OF ADVERTISER AND SALES REP | COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT |
| Script Change to Audio or Video | New Commercial ID (can add "R" or "REV" to end of original Commercial ID) Re-submit for Telecaster Approval Send new Traffic Instructions with updated Commercial ID to the Scheduler |
Creates new house number |
| Technical Reasons |
Examples
|
Transfers to the same house # (whether the original creative has gone to air or not) |
| Add Closed Captioning |
|
Transfers to the same house number |
Select an option to advertise in the CBC/Radio-Canada ecosystem
