As with last week's column on Average Frequency, we examine the definitions of Frequency's companion metric, Average Reach. Interestingly, while Average Frequency definitions include interactivity components, so far the various definitions of Reach tend to remain television-centric. This might be because it is much harder to measure unique, unduplicated usage across platforms.

Maybe you've heard this already, but a new season of "Mad Men" is returning to television Sunday night. But it's not just the TV show that's back; this will also mean the return of the "Mad Men" recappers.

"That episode is going to require some recovery and therapy," said a happily stimulated Chris Hardwick during the opening moments of last week's edition of "Talking Dead," the live AMC talk show telecast every Sunday following new episodes of "The Walking Dead." As was undoubtedly true of millions of viewers, agreeable host Hardwick was so worked up over events in last week's senses-shattering show -- the penultimate episode of "Walking Dead's" sophomore season -- that he could barely contain himself.

Continuing from last week's discussion of frequency (Return Path Data Lexicon: Frequency) is an examination of terms regarding average frequency. It is interesting to note that because of datapoints such as trick play and connectivity in the return path, it will become possible to combine television behaviors such as viewership with interactive behaviors such as click-throughs. Set-Top-Box data can help expand the measurement of content, as we see in the following average frequency definitions:

In any given week, there’s only a handful of first-run comedies I really want to watch: “The Office,” “Modern Family,” “Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” and “New Girl.”  Yet thanks to an unexpected source -- Netflix -- I find myself watching more TV comedy that ever before. Yes, Netflix --  the same service I was on the verge of cancelling last year because of its poor selection of movies -- is now the place to go for quality time-shifted television. The New York Timesreported two weeks ago  that TV series now account for more than half of all …

The year is still young, but my early choice for most improved returning series of 2012 is TNT’s gritty cop drama “Southland,” currently finishing up its fourth season. I can’t recall another series that made several key changes so far into its run and emerged much better than it had ever been. Beginning with its first season, which unfortunately was on then hit-repelling NBC, this saga of Los Angeles detectives and street cops was too grim and serious for its own good. That’s not to say that its cast and production values weren’t always first-rate. But in its efforts to …

This week we explore frequency. When paired in the discussion of reach, frequency is the number of times each individual target has been exposed. But in another part of the media industry, definition of frequency is quite different. In the electronics realm, frequency is an electromagnetic wave cycle. That is the fun and the challenge of creating a common industry language.

Henry Schafer, EVP, Marketing Evaluations, Inc./The Q Scores Company, is a media research veteran from the consumer research/ advertising agency sphere. His current company, Marketing Evaluations, is best known as the inventor of Q scores, which indicate consumer favorability and marketing potential for celebrities as well as for programs, brands and licensed properties.

The two biggest broadcast events of the year have once again come and gone. The first broke ratings records and the second actually saw a slight uptick from its performance in 2011, so nobody is going to pay very much attention to hindsight criticism. But that doesn't change the feeling of general disappointment that followed NBC's telecast of Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5 and ABC's presentation of the 84th Academy Awards last Sunday.

There are often several ways to describe the same measurement metric in media-speak. A good example is Reach (or Cume), which can be reported as a percentage (or in thousands). Reach is the unduplicated expanse of your content or your message whether it is measured in homes, viewers or set-top boxes, and whether it is based on time or quantity. With STB data, reach can be calculated to the second-by-second level which may or may not be meaningful to programmers or advertisers. Time will tell.