CRA announces return of regional radio ratings
Radio ratings surveys for regional stations will return in 2021, after a full year of hiatus due to pandemic-led difficulties associated with collecting data.
Commercial Radio Australia has announced that it will release 25 surveys throughout 2021, beginning with a survey for Geraldton in Western Australia on 9 March.
CRA will continue to partner with Xtra Insights for all regional surveys except for major regional centres Newcastle, Canberra and the Gold Coast, which are collated by metro survey provider GfK.
2021 will see surveys released for other major centres including Hobart, Darwin, Townsville, Gosford, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Shepparton.
CRA’s RadioApp
CRA chief executive Joan Warner revealed that the peak industry body has extended its contract with Xtra for one year.
Xtra has conducted more than 100 regional radio surveys across 47 regional markets since 2014 and provides information on the stations listened to most. The reach and frequency data is available through Frequency, its Gold Standard certified software system.
“We’re pleased to continue our partnership with Xtra Insights and resume the important task of measuring regional radio audiences,” Warner said.
Xtra research director and acting head of radio audience measurement, Hannah Lovegrove, said: “2020 was an incredibly challenging year for the Australian radio industry, so we’re thrilled that the regional surveys will be returning in 2021 with fieldwork and preparations already underway for a number of markets.
“We’re pleased to announce that recent innovations to reporting software, Frequency, now allow for the generation of multi-week reach and frequency schedules, which we hope will be of great benefit to both agencies and broadcasters.”
The first metro radio survey for 2021 will be released by CRA and data provider GfK later this week.
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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