Radio ratings delayed: GfK requests additional time due to lockdowns
Commercial Radio Australia has once again been forced to delay the release of its radio ratings due to COVID-19 lockdowns, with the industry body revealing that the fifth metro survey of 2021 will be delayed by one week.
The ratings will now drop on August 31 after ratings data provider GfK requested additional time to process its data due to a large proportion of its staff being located in NSW’s ongoing lockdown.
A significant percentage of those staff are also located in the expanded group of eight Local Government Areas (LGAs) listed as of concern and now subject to harsher lockdown conditions in NSW.
CRA CEO Joan Warner
The pause follows a complete halt to the radio ratings during 2020, with surveys three, four and five skipped entirely due to far-reaching lockdowns across Australia.
CRA chief executive officer, Joan Warner, said the survey was able to be completed as usual, but with movement restrictions on GfK staff, the provider simply needed more time to process all the data.
“GfK has been impacted by the new rules which restrict travel out of the eight LGAs of concern to authorised essential workers only. The actual survey work itself is not affected, but a short extension of time is required for processing the results given the challenging circumstances.
“GfK is well prepared with contingency plans already in place but to take into consideration any delays due to the hard lockdowns, CRA agreed to allow a little more time for the processing of the results.”
When CRA resumed the ratings last year, Melbourne remained in lockdown and GfK was forced to rely more heavily on online survey responses. That could be an option this time around too, with Greater Sydney stuck in a lockdown with no obvious end in sight.
Australia’s official regional radio ratings, provided by Xtra Insights, took a full year’s hiatus due to COVID-19 but have since returned in 2021.
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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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