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Delivering to NETA: what your file has to meet

A plain-English summary of NETA’s 2025 file submission requirements — the wrapper and codec, the video levels, the timecode, the audio, and the caption rules that reject more files than anything else.

Written for independent producers delivering to US public television · Checked September 2026

This is my summary, not NETA’s document, and it is not official. NETA sends its own requirements with your programme instructions, and those are the ones that count — always read them before the final export. What follows is the shape of the thing, in the order it usually goes wrong.

The file: wrapper, codec and picture

• Format: XDCAM HD422 in an MXF OP1a wrapper is NETA’s preference. DNxHD 145, 220 or 220x is accepted. Apple ProRes 422 and 422 HQ are accepted but not preferred.
• Picture: 1920 × 1080, 4:2:2, at 29.97 or 59.94 fps. XDCAM HD422 is MPEG-2 long-GOP at 50 Mb/s.
• Field order: upper field first.

Video levels

• Everything between 0 and 100 IRE. NETA’s uplink flags anything above 100 or below 0.
• NETA’s own tip: put a video limiter at 100 IRE with a little headroom, and switch off “Clamp Signal” on your scope — with clamping on, the scope hides the very thing you are looking for.

Timecode and structure

• Drop-frame timecode, starting at 01:00:00;00 or 00:00:00;00.
• One frame of black at the start and one at the end.
• No bars, no tone and no slate unless your programme instructions ask for them.

Audio

• PCM, uncompressed: 48 kHz, 24-bit.
• Stereo: two channels — 1 Left, 2 Right. With described video or a second language, eight channels: 1 Left, 2 Right, 3–6 silent, 7 DVI, 8 SAP (silent if there is none).
• 5.1: six channels — L, R, C, LFE, Ls, Rs — or eight, with DVI on 7 and SAP on 8.
• Loudness: −24 LKFS ±2, measured to ITU-R BS.1770-3 across the whole programme.
• Peaks: programme peaks between −12 and −8 dBFS, nominal −10, with the average around −20 dBFS. Music and effects may touch −2 dBFS true peak for dramatic impact, as long as the dialogue stays at level.
• Clean audio: no clipping, no distortion.
• Lip sync within half a frame, in either direction.
• No stereo synthesis. An up-mix to 5.1 has to fold back to stereo and to mono without an audible change, with the centre image still in the centre.

Closed captions

• Embedded, which NETA prefers: 708 captions carrying 608 compatibility bytes, in a SMPTE 436M ancillary data track. A file with 708 only is not accepted.
• Or a sidecar: an .scc file. NETA cannot process any other caption format — not .srt, not .vtt, not .mcc. Tell NETA which one you are sending.
• The .scc name matches the video name exactly: show.mxf → show.scc. Spanish captions are show_SP.scc, and when there are English and Spanish captions both go as sidecars, with nothing embedded.
• The .scc starts on the same timecode as the video.
• Timing: captions within about a second of the spoken word.
• Layout: one to three lines on screen at a time; two reads best.
• Placement: never over name keys, on-screen text, faces or important action — move the caption to the top of the frame while a lower third is up.

Ask NETA for the rest, before the final export

The instructions for your programme may add a maximum running time, a NETA tag at the end, a rating icon and the Producers Media Technical Evaluation Form. Ask for all of them while they are still cheap to meet — a running time that is eight seconds long is an edit; discovering it after the master is built is a re-export, a re-measure and a new caption pass.

Summary of NETA’s 2025 file submission requirements, prepared by Cleared for Air. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, NETA — check the current requirements NETA sends you before you deliver. The source documents and the standards behind each check are listed under Resources. © 2026 Cleared for Air.