MacKenzie To Claim £66 Million In Damages From RAJAR
Kelvin MacKenzie’s Wireless Group has commenced legal proceedings against RAJAR and is claiming damages of more than £66 million allegedly caused by “flaws” in the audience measurement body’s research.
MacKenzie claims that the “inaccuracy” of RAJAR’s current diary method and the decision not to replace it with an electronic measurement system, are causing his talkSPORT station to lose revenues of approximately £1.5 million per month (see MacKenzie Sets Date For RAJAR Court Battle).
The outspoken former Sun editor has been complaining for more than three years that RAJAR’s diary system of audience measurement is weighted against speech stations and lesser known broadcasters. He is seeking damages to compensate for the advertising revenue that he believes has been lost over this period.
The Wireless Group is also claiming that RAJAR’s recent tests of electronic measurement were “fatally flawed”. The radio group alleges to have discovered the “scandalous” way the tests were carried out and claims there is nothing wrong with the current generation of electronic meters it currently endorses (see New Study To Shake-Up Audience Measurement?).
MacKenzie said: “Incredibly, I have spent more than three years of my life trying to persuade the radio industry that the diary, pencil and short-term memory should be replaced by a technology that measures radio audiences more accurately.”
He added: “Today signals the end of my attempt to seek straightforward change through negotiation and the beginning of the final stage in which I will make my case to a judge while they make theirs.”
MacKenzie claims RAJAR’s diary system of measurement is damaging advertising revenue at his flagship talkSPORT station by underestimating the size of its audience. The latest officially sanctioned RAJAR figures put the station’s weekly reach at just over 1.8 million, but GfK’s contentious electronic survey claims the station reaches almost 6.6 million listeners (see Speech Stations See Audiences Increase Under GfK Survey).
Last summer, after fifteen months of extensive testing, RAJAR claimed the current generation of electronic meters were not capable of delivering a radio audience measurement system up to its “gold standard”. Months later it announced plans to invest more than £500,000 in a second wave of tests into the latest electronic audiometers developed by Arbitron and Radiocontrol (see RAJAR To Invest In Further Electronic Measurement Trials).
MacKenzie is raising questions over the validity of the initial tests, claiming: “Knowing what I now know about how RAJAR’s tests were conducted and upon what basis the board’s decision was made, I look forward to the result of the trial with 100% confidence.”
The Wireless Group chairman has been an outspoken critic of RAJAR for sometime. However, his opinion is not shared by a number of advertisers keen to maintain the integrity of the currency used to trade millions of pounds worth of radio audiences (see Agencies Support Rejection Of Electronic Measurement).
Wireless Group: 020 7269 7180
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