Sweeps

Sweeps is the plural form of sweep and may refer to several distinct concepts across different contexts. The main uses fall into promotions, broadcast measurement, and technical or athletic terminology.

In promotions, a sweepstakes is a type of promotional drawing that awards prizes by chance. Participants typically enter without payment, although some promotions require a purchase or offer an alternate method of entry. Sweeps are regulated by consumer-protection and lottery laws that vary by country and jurisdiction, with rules covering eligibility, entry methods, prize descriptions, and reporting requirements. In marketing, the term sweeps is often used informally to refer to such contests as a whole.

In the television industry, sweeps (or the sweeps period) is a scheduled span during which stations measure audience sizes to set advertising rates. In the United States, traditional sweeps periods historically occurred in November, February, May, and July, and results guided scheduling, promotions, and local advertising negotiations. The rise of streaming and on-demand viewing has changed measurement practices, but the concept remains a benchmark for broadcast performance in many markets.

Other uses of the term include sports and martial arts, where a sweep refers to a technique that unbalances and brings an opponent to the ground. In engineering and signal processing, a frequency sweep (or swept signal) is one that progressively changes frequency over time, used in testing and characterization of systems.

See also: Sweep (disambiguation), Sweepstakes, Rating sweep, Frequency sweep.