Commercial Radio Australia calls tender for audience measure
Commercial Radio Australia has called a tender for the new contract of the industry’s audience measurement service. The current service is held by Nielsen.
The announcement:
Chief executive officer of Commercial Radio Australia, Joan Warner, said today tenders had been called for the next contract for the provision of radio audience measurement services to start in January 2014.
“While the industry expects that the global standard of paper diaries for collection of radio audience data will remain the main method of collection of radio audience measurement in the short term, the industry is also very open to proposals for supplementary data collection methods to enhance the basic methodology,“ Ms Warner said.
Recent investigations of supplementary data collection methods have included online diaries and the use of mobiles and tablets to record radio listening.“Recent tests of an online diary yielded much more positive results that when we carried out a similar test in 2007. This highlights how people’s increasing use of technology means listeners now appear more willing to record their listening habits online.”
Ms Warner said that this is a very different tender specification than in previous tenders where one methodology had been required. The industry also does not wish to prescribe nor limit proposals for supplementary methodology to those methods already investigated but is seeking advice and suitable proposals from research companies.
“The industry is looking to enhance the methodology currently used for the collection of radio audience measurement data and is prepared to consider a range of proposals for the next contract. The industry is seeking proposals, advice, and evidence of performance and results from research companies that will lead to a cost effective methodology. ““Australian radio has one of the most robust listenership measurement systems in the world but that doesn’t stop us considering ways to improve it further. It should also be remembered that one of radio’s major strengths, its mobility, ubiquity and reach into all situations, conversely, provides one of the major challenges for radio audience measurement.”
The current measurement system includes eight surveys a year in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth as well as three surveys a year in Newcastle and the Gold Coast, two a year in Canberra and one in Wollongong.
The current contract for radio surveys, held by Nielsen, expires at the end of 2013. A decision on the winning research company/ies to undertake radio audience measurement commencing in January 2014 will be made early next year following an extensive tender process.
The new contract will also mark the commencement of a Gold Standard for radio analysis software, in relation to which Nielsen’s Radio Advisor currently has the monopoly.
Ms Warner said major local and international research companies had been invited to tender.
Source: Commercial Radio Australia press release
There are a whole lot of sphincters contracting right now ….. Everyone know that diary system is a farce….. And ‘people meters’ will show that all radio listening is less than what is claimed!….. But of course what’s the chance of actually doing something that might be more accurate?
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I think you mean PPM, not peoplemeter which is a box attached to a TV set. I can’t see PPMs being adopted in this market. The stations are too regional and sample size requirements are too high, therefore the cost being prohibitive. Online diaries is the obvious step.
I don’t think we are likely to see a significant decline in listening if we did move to passive measurement. We would however see significant changes to the performance of stations. The total reach would remain constant for the large stations, but most likely increase for the smaller stations. It is the time spent with stations that is most likely to change. I have recently seen the comparative stats for a parrallel test of a new PPM panel against diary data, so this isn’t purely conjecture however it was not Australian data obviously.
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