NewsLine Column: Ten Years Of RAJAR
As radio listening becomes more sophisticated the demands on the existing system of audience measurement are increasing. With this in mind, RAJAR’s managing director, Jane O’Hara, looks back over ten years of RAJAR and considers what the future holds for radio audience measurement.
With only a few weeks to go until 2003 begins one could be forgiven for wondering where this year has gone. RAJAR has had a busy 10th year.
We have been continuing to work hard to ensure that the current survey is maintained and improved. Work has been carried out on some of the demographic groups where return rates are not as high as they could be, in an effort to find out how we can find a solution. Pilot studies have been carried out asking respondents to name the stations that they have listened to in the last seven days via TV or internet.
From Quarter 4 this year, stations that hold analogue local or regional licences and that also broadcast via DAB, TV and internet can report on the UK Total Survey Area in addition to their traditional areas. The first data from stations that have taken this option will be available at the end of January 2003. In addition, from Quarter 1 2003 national digital only services can join the survey, the first sight of this data will be in May next year.
Investigating different methodologies for collecting audience data has been a major project. RAJAR began testing meters in January and with a fifteen month timetable, is scheduled to complete them at the end of March next year. During the first months of testing we carried out extensive tests on the meters including acoustic, placement, compliance, breakfast listening and qualitative tests. They have been painstaking and exhaustive but they have paid off and as a result we understand a great deal more about meters and how they work. Now we need to discover how complete and robust the data they capture is to ascertain whether it can be trusted as a reliable and stable currency.
RAJAR has moved into the third phase of the audiometer-testing programme. In September 2002 a six month test began of the US manufactured Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM). The test is monitoring the listening habits of a panel of 300 London households to 32 radio services from a mix of platforms including analogue, digital, satellite TV and internet. A special signal, which is identified by the Arbitron PPM but is inaudible to the listener, has been encoded into each of the service’s broadcasts.
These latest tests are to ascertain: What editing rules should be applied to the data in order to minimise misattribution and bridge gaps (missing minutes) in data capture? Are the interviewer instructions and scripts correct? Is the panel being managed correctly? Incentives – are they set at the correct level? How quickly will respondents leave the panel? How well do respondents comply with the task of wearing meters over an extended period? What are the key differences in the data captured when compared to diary data? Do meters give us more accuracy, a different kind of accuracy, or both?
Similar tests are scheduled to begin shortly on the Swiss developed Radiocontrol wristwatch.
This latest stage of testing, launched in September, should begin to complete the picture for us on how these two audiometers function and whether they can fulfil the exacting needs of the UK radio industry. Once we have the final results we should be in a position to advise on the best way forward and to move on to the next stage.
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