# How to calculate donated media value

> A step-by-step method for valuing donated PSA airings: rate evidence, commercial-equivalent rates, spot length, a CPM cross-check and honest labeling.

Source: https://psareach.com/insights/how-to-calculate-donated-media-value/

Donated media value Guide · 9 min read

A step-by-step method for valuing donated PSA airings: rate evidence, commercial-equivalent rates, spot length, a CPM cross-check and honest labeling.

 The PSAReach team Published September 23, 2026 · Reviewed September 29, 2026

Free tool Try the donated media value calculator Spots × estimated unit rate, with impressions and an implied CPM. [Open the calculator](https://psareach.com/tools/donated-media-value-calculator/)

In short

-   Donated media value is an estimate. Count the verified airings, apply a commercial-equivalent rate for each station, daypart and spot length, and add them up.
-   Label the result estimated, and name the rate basis and the period the rates come from.
-   Give :15, :30 and :60 airings their own rates. Spot length changes the value, not the audience.
-   Cross-check the result with the implied CPM to catch a rate or audience attached to the wrong daypart.

To calculate donated media value, you count verified PSA airings by station, daypart and spot length, attach a commercial-equivalent rate to each, and add them up. It’s the number that travels furthest, into annual reports, grant applications, matching-fund claims and board decks, so you need to be able to explain it.

That last part matters more than people expect. A value nobody can explain becomes a problem the moment a funder or auditor asks how you got it. This guide walks through the method in five steps, using hypothetical numbers throughout. To run the arithmetic on your own figures, the [donated media value calculator](https://psareach.com/tools/donated-media-value-calculator/) follows the same logic.

## What are the three ways to value a donated airing?

There are three common ways to put a dollar figure on a donated airing. They give very different answers, so a report should say which one it used.

**Rate-card value** multiplies each airing by the station’s published price for that program or daypart. It’s simple and easy to source. But rate cards are list prices, and commercial advertisers rarely pay them, so rate-card value tends to overstate what the airtime was worth in the market.

**Commercial-equivalent value** asks what a commercial advertiser would actually have paid for the same station, daypart and spot length. It’s built from rate evidence, such as observed transactions and negotiated benchmarks. It’s the most defensible basis, and it’s the one PSAReach uses as its headline figure.

**CPM-based value** starts from the estimated impressions an airing delivered and multiplies by a market CPM. It’s handy as a cross-check and for comparing broadcast with digital, but it stacks one estimate on another. As the basis for a headline number, it’s the weakest of the three.

All three produce estimates. None of them is a measurement, so any figure they generate should carry the word “estimated” wherever it appears.

## Step 1: count verified airings by station, daypart and length

Value is built airing by airing, so you start with a clean, verified airing record. For each airing you need the station, the local daypart and the spot length. Without those, you can approximate the value but you can’t calculate it correctly.

The airing count itself is measured. It comes from measured occurrence data that’s been normalized to a station and a local time. Keep it apart from everything that follows, because it’s the one number in the calculation that doesn’t need a caveat. The [tracking guide](https://psareach.com/insights/how-psa-tracking-works-tv-radio/) explains how that record is produced.

## Step 2: choose a rate basis for each station and daypart

For each combination of station, daypart and spot length, you need a unit rate. The best evidence is recent rate observations for that station and time period that are commercially comparable. Where there are several, use a central estimate that one unusual buy can’t drag around, such as a weighted median. Give recent observations more weight than old ones, and ordinary commercial buys more weight than unusual ones.

If all you have is a rate card, use it, but say so. Label rate-card figures as list prices and, where you can, adjust them toward observed market levels. Never present a rate-card figure as what the station would have charged.

## Step 3: adjust for spot length

Spot length changes value but not audience. A :15 and a :30 in the same break reach the same people, so the impressions are identical. The price isn’t. A :15 typically sells at roughly half to 60 percent of the :30 rate, and a :60 typically sells for more than a :30 but less than double.

So carry each length separately, with its own rate. Don’t convert everything to a “:30 equivalent”, and don’t scale audience by length. A schedule with 350 :60 airings and 890 :30 airings has 1,240 airings’ worth of impressions and two separate value calculations.

## Step 4: multiply and sum

Once you have a rate for each station, daypart and length, the calculation is straightforward.

```
Estimated Value per Airing = Rate for Station, Daypart and Spot Length
Estimated Campaign Value   = Sum of Estimated Value per Airing across all airings
```

Add up the per-airing values for the campaign estimate. If a station or daypart had no rate evidence at all, either leave those airings out of the value figure and say how many you left out, or apply a market benchmark and label it clearly.

## Step 5: cross-check with CPM

When you have an estimated value and an estimated impression figure for the same airings, work out the implied CPM.

```
CPM = (Estimated Commercial Value ÷ Estimated Impressions) × 1,000
```

The result should land inside a plausible range for that market and daypart. If an early-morning news schedule in a mid-size market implies a CPM of $80, something’s wrong. Usually it’s a rate attached to the wrong daypart, or an audience figure for the wrong demographic. The cross-check won’t catch every error, but it catches the big ones. The [CPM calculator](https://psareach.com/tools/cpm-calculator/) does the arithmetic for you.

## A worked example

Say a campaign has 40 verified :30 airings in the early-morning news daypart on one station. Rate evidence for that station and daypart gives a :30 rate of $180.

-   40 × $180 = $7,200

The same station also ran the campaign’s :15 cut 25 times in the same daypart. On this station the evidence puts :15 spots at about 55 percent of the :30 price, so the :15 rate is $99.

-   25 × $99 = $2,475

For this station and daypart, the estimated donated media value is $9,675. Repeat that for each station and daypart in the schedule, add the results, and you have the campaign total. Suppose it comes to $410,000. That’s the figure for the annual report, written as “an estimated $410,000 in donated media value”, with the rate basis and period named.

Now the cross-check. Suppose the audience estimate for early-morning news on this station is 13,000 households per airing. The 40 :30 airings then represent 520,000 estimated gross impressions. Divide the estimated value of $7,200 by 520,000 and multiply by 1,000, and you get an implied CPM of about $13.85. That’s plausible for local morning news, so the rate and audience inputs agree.

The :15 airings add impressions at the same rate per airing but value at a lower rate. That’s why length belongs on the rate and never on the audience.

## What are the common mistakes?

These errors turn up regularly in PSA value reports. Any one of them can undo an otherwise sound calculation.

-   **Summing rate-card list prices** and presenting the total as market value. A list price is a ceiling, and a poor stand-in for what the market paid.
-   **Applying a prime-time rate to overnight airings.** Most donated airings run in low-demand periods, and value has to follow the daypart the airing actually ran in.
-   **Scaling audience by length.** A :60 doesn’t reach twice the people a :30 does. It’s worth more, but the same people see it.
-   **Mixing measured and estimated figures** in one sentence without labels. “1,240 airings delivered $410,000 in value” needs the word “estimated” before the dollar figure.
-   **Reporting a value with no basis and no source period.** If the method isn’t written down, nobody will be able to defend the value a year later.
-   **Counting airings on unmonitored stations** by assumption. An airing that wasn’t verified doesn’t belong in the value figure.

## What should you ask your provider?

1.  Is the value figure based on rate cards, on commercial-equivalent rate evidence or on CPM? Is the basis stated on the report?
2.  Is the value labeled estimated, with the method explained?
3.  How recent is the rate evidence, and is the source period shown?
4.  Are :15, :30 and :60 airings valued separately?
5.  Were any airings left out of the value figure for lack of rate evidence, and how many?
6.  Does the report show an implied CPM as a sanity check?
7.  Is each value figure labeled “estimated” wherever it appears, including in exports?

A donated media value worked out this way is still an estimate. What makes it usable in front of a board or a funder is the method and the source date that come with it. The [methodology page](https://psareach.com/methodology/) sets out the full calculation rules, the [glossary](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-commercial-equivalent-value) defines the terms, and [Media Intelligence](https://psareach.com/media-intelligence/) describes what PSAReach’s value and audience estimates cover.

Terms in this guide

-   [Donated media value](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-donated-media-value)
-   [Commercial-equivalent value](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-commercial-equivalent-value)
-   [Rate card](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-rate-card)
-   [CPM (cost per thousand)](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-cpm)
-   [Impressions](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-impressions)
-   [Spot length](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-spot-length)
-   [Daypart](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-daypart)
-   [Airing](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-airing)
-   [Estimated vs measured](https://psareach.com/glossary/#term-estimated-vs-measured)

[See all guides](https://psareach.com/insights/)

## Get new guides by email

One short email a month with new guides on donated media, PSA tracking and campaign reporting. Reading the guides never requires an email address.

Check your email to confirm. Nothing is sent to you until you do.

Related services

-   [Media Intelligence Station, market and audience insight, backed by a transparent valuation methodology. Explore](https://psareach.com/media-intelligence/)
-   [PSA Tracking & Valuation Verified TV and radio airings by market, station and daypart, with the airtime valued and labeled estimated. Explore](https://psareach.com/psa-tracking-analytics/)
-   [Dashboards & Reporting Executive dashboards and automated reporting for boards, funders and program teams. Explore](https://psareach.com/dashboards-reporting/)

## Need this worked out for your own campaign?

We work out donated media value airing by airing, labeled estimated, with the method named.

[Talk to PSAReach](https://psareach.com/contact/) [Explore all services](https://psareach.com/#services)